The Commentariat -- October 2, 2019

Late Morning Update:

     ~~~ Here's a brief report from Brett Samuels of the Hill on Trump's chopper chat.

~~~ Andrew Desiderio & Heather Caygle of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Wednesday vowed to move aggressively on House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, even as .... Donald Trump lashed out at the pair in the middle of their news conference. Despite the Democrats' insistence that Trump would be treated fairly and that the fast-moving investigation would not interfere with bipartisan legislative priorities, Trump accused them on Twitter of 'wasting everyone's time and energy on BULLSHIT.' He called Schiff a 'lowlife' and said Pelosi was 'incapable' of working with him on other issues...." ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday blasted Democrats for wasting time on 'bullshit' as the House moves forward with its impeachment inquiry. The president on Wednesday morning unleashed a torrent of tweets slamming Democrats as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stood alongside House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to lay out their agenda and progress on the impeachment inquiry. 'The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone's time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,' Trump tweeted shortly after the conclusion of the press conference [Pelosi/Schiff], misstating the 232 electoral votes his opponent got in 2016.... His latest diatribe was sparked by the press conference, which Trump responded to in real time." ~~~

~~~ Oma Seddiq of Politico: Trump live-tweeted the Pelosi-Schiff presser. Mrs. McC: Should that be lie-tweeted?

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House threatened on Wednesday to subpoena the White House if it did not comply by Friday with broad requests for documents related President Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son and any attempt by the administration to conceal his actions. Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, notified his committee of the impending subpoena on Wednesday. He said the White House had thus far ignored Congress's voluntary requests."

John Bowden of the Hill: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday backed away from statements made previously by Kremlin officials about his calls with President Trump, telling reporters that he would not object to transcripts being made public. Multiple news outlets reported that Putin made the remarks after meeting with Iran's Hassan Rouhani, telling journalists that there was nothing on his calls with Trump that could compromise the U.S. president."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) underwent heart surgery after he experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event on Tuesday, his campaign said. Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders's campaign, said a medical evaluation of the Vermont senator discovered blockage in one of his arteries, and two stents were successfully inserted." Update: The New York Times story is here.

Aaron Lorenzo of Politico: "The IRS needs to examine whether the National Rifle Association should lose its tax-exempt status, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Finance Committee rankin member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said today. A recent report by Wyden's committee investigators raised questions about some NRA activities and social welfare requirements for its tax exemption, the senators wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. The report alleged some NRA members used a 2015 NRA trip to Moscow for their own personal business reasons rather than for tax-exempt purposes. Misuse of tax-exempt funding for private gain would violate tax laws."

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Trump, Inc. -- The Criminal Enterprise, Ctd.

It's very easy actually to work with me. You know why it's easy? Because I make all the decisions. -- Donald Trump, last month ~~~

~~~ How Trump, Inc. Works. Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "As the impeachment drama has unfolded over the past week, a series of disclosures has illuminated President Trump's command over key federal agencies, revealing how he has compelled them to pursue his personal and political goals, investigate his enemies and lend legitimacy to his theories about the 2016 election. The Justice Department has prioritized a probe that the president hopes will discredit a finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him win.... The State Department, meanwhile, has been investigating the email records of as many as 130 current and former department officials who sent messages to the private email account of Hillary Clinton.... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defied Congress ... by attempting to block the depositions of five department employees.... The leading members of Trump's inner circle dutifully work to address his concerns, sometimes by directing federal resources. Officials including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for example, have worked to block Democratic lawmakers and others from obtaining access to Trump's tax returns, which he has refused to disclose publicly. The list of Trump loyalists pulled into his maneuvers begins at the top. Vice President Pence ... met with Zelensky [last month] and urged him to address 'corruption,' seeming to reiterate the message Trump communicated to Zelensky in July about investigating the Bidens."

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "For President Trump, the impeachment case being built by Democrats over his alleged effort to recruit foreign help for his reelection effort isn't just a 'WITCH HUNT,' though he calls it that, too; it's 'treason.' It isn't just 'presidential harassment,' though he also makes that charge; it's an invitation to 'Civil War.'... Expanding on the lexicon of outrage and victimhood honed during the probe into Russian interference in the last election, Trump is invoking the muskets-and-ramparts idioms of the country's beginnings. The ratcheting up of his rhetoric is also indicative of Trump's tendency to interpret any criticism of him as an attack on the government, worrying critics and scholars who warn of the dangers posed by his l'état, c'est moi call to arms." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has a series of brief posts on Tuesday's developments in the impeachment contretemps. ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday reiterated his desire to meet with and question the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's interactions with the leader of Ukraine ignited an impeachment inquiry. The president, who in recent days attacked the whistleblower as a 'fraud' and attempted to undermine their [Mrs. McC: his] credibility, questioned why he doesn't have the right to interview the anonymous individual. '[W]hy aren't we entitled to interview & learn everything about the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him,' Trump tweeted. 'This is simply about a phone conversation that could not have been nicer, warmer, or better. No pressure at all (as confirmed by Ukrainian Pres.). It is just another Democrat Hoax!'... Trump claimed the author of the complaint 'has all second hand information' and that 'almost everything' the whistleblower recounted about the president's call with Ukraine was wrong. But neither of those things are [Mrs. McC: is] true.... The Whistleblower Protection Act makes it a violation for federal agencies to threaten retaliation against individuals who come forward to raise concerns of wrongdoing within the government." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "In a Tuesday statement, [Sen. Chuck] Grassley [R-Iowa] moved to stave off attacks and the unmasking of the federal whistleblower who first divulged Trump's call with Ukraine's president. Trump and many of his allies in Congress and outside have been working to chip away at the whisleblower's credibility, calling his complaint 'hearsay' and playing down its validity. Grassley ... said Tuesday that the fact that the individual's knowledge of Trump's phone call and the White House restricting records came secondhand should not invalidate his reporting. 'This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. We should always work to respect whistleblowers,' Grassley said. 'Complaints based on second-hand information should not be rejected out of hand, but they do require additional leg work to get at the facts and evaluate the claim's credibility.' Grassley also said media reports on the identity of the whistleblower 'don't serve the public interest -- even if the conflict sells more papers or attracts clicks.' The New York Times and Washington Post both reported that the whistleblower is a CIA officer but did not identify him by name."

This Times of London story is firewalled, but New York's "Intelligencer" today (@ 7:39 am) republishes the main point: "President Trump personally contacted Boris Johnson to ask for help as he tried to discredit the Mueller investigation into possible connections between Russia and his 2016 election campaign, The Times understands.... The US president is believed to have asked Mr Johnson for his help during a congratulatory phone call on July 26, two days after the prime minister took office. Mr Barr arrived in London days later to attend a meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. He shared with British officials his suspicions about the information that triggered the Mueller investigation and the role of British intelligence agencies in collecting it." Update: Here's a Daily Beast summary of the Times of London report. More on Bill Barr, International P.I. linked below.

David Graham of the Atlantic: "The latest Trump scandal demonstrates how incapable Trump is of learning -- either facts or lessons -- and how dangerous that is. Trump's refusal to accept the truth about Ukrainian hacking (which did not happen) arose from his refusal to accept the truth about Russian hacking (which did happen). That is, Trump's obsession with Ukraine began as a search for vindication over allegations of foreign interference in the 2016 election, and led directly to Trump importuning foreign interference in the 2020 race.... He shows notable lack of interest in his official briefing materials, which have been shrunk down to minimal form. He eagerly consumes conspiracy theories and humbug, though."

One Accomplice Admits He Heard the Crime Go Down. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed on Wednesday that he had listened in on President Trump';s telephone conversation with the president of Ukraine.... 'I was on the phone call,' Mr. Pompeo said at a news conference in Rome -- the first time he has addressed the topic publicly since reports surfaced that he had heard the exchange." ~~~

~~~ Cover-up, Ctd. Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused the Democratic chairs of three House committees investigating the State Department's role in Rudy Giuliani's Ukraine efforts of trying to 'intimidate, bully, and treat improperly' five State Department officials called for depositions. In the fierce letter addressed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Pompeo blasted the depositions in the impeachment probe as rushed and potentially in violation of executive privilege, accused committee staff of not following protocol, and appeared to say the officials will not show up. 'I will not tolerate such tactics, and I will use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals whom I am proud to lead and serve alongside at the Department of State,' Pompeo wrote." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House impeachment inquiry broke into a full-throated battle between the executive and legislative branches Tuesday, as congressional Democrats and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traded threats and accusations, President Trump questioned whether a leader of the probe [-- Adam Schiff --] should be arrested, and another senior Democrat [-- Maxine Waters --] said Trump should be imprisoned in' solitary confinement.' As the scope of the inquiry broadened, it touched a wide swath of top administration officials. In letters to Vice President Pence and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded answers by Friday to questions about what they knew, when they knew it, and their roles in President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine.... Much of the day's turmoil centered on Pompeo, who said in a letter to the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees ... that five State Department officials called to give depositions over the next two weeks would not appear as scheduled.... The committee chairmen responded to Pompeo ... by saying any attempt to prevent department officials from speaking to them 'is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction,' according to a statement issued by Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), who heads the foreign affairs panel.... Meanwhile, the committees were notified that the State Department's inspector general has requested to speak with them on Wednesday 'to discuss and provide staff with copies of documents related to the State Department and Ukraine,' according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.... The inspector general does not have to seek Pompeo's approval to approach lawmakers with information...." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here, and the NBC News story is here. Jen Kirby of Vox has a fairly comprehensive report covering the same matters in the WashPo report. ~~~

~~~ ** Here's a pdf of a letter from House chairmen Engel, Schiff & Cummings sent late Tuesday to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, responding to Mike Pompeo's bombastic letter. The chairmen write that they are addressing Sullivan because Pompeo has a conflict of interest inasmuch as he participated in the July 25 Trump-Zelensky phone call. Therefore, Pompeo should not be making any decisions re: witness testimony or document production. "... the Committees may infer that he is trying to cover up illicit activity and misconduct, including by the President. This would be a blatant cover-up and clear abuse of power." Read on. Democrats can play hardball, too. ~~~

~~~ Alex Moe, et al., of NBC News: "Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine who resigned his post last week after his name appeared in a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump's dealings with the Ukraine, will testify in the House's impeachment inquiry on Thursday, two committee aides told NBC News Tuesday. Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was abruptly ousted from her post in May, will also sit for a joint deposition before the House Intel, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees on Oct. 11. Her deposition was originally scheduled for this Wednesday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Fall Guy. Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "When ... Rudy Giuliani appeared on cable news programs last week, he deflected questions about his work in Ukraine and instead hammered home one talking point over and over again: The State Department knew he was trying to dig up dirt on ... Joe Biden and his son Hunter.... Giuliani's on-air appearances threw the department into a tizzy, forcing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to try to put a lid on the crisis of confidence..., according to three senior U.S. officials. For Pompeo, solving the problem meant finding someone to blame -- and there was only one individual who fit the mold, according to those same sources: former U.S. representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker.... Current and former State Department officials who spoke to The Daily Beast, some of who[m] are close to Volker, said he was forced out of his post." ~~~

~~~ ** Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "The State Department's inspector general on Tuesday requested an urgent briefing with senior congressional staff members after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed back on House Democratic demands to turn over documents related to Ukraine and to depose current and former State officials, according to sources briefed on the matter. It's unclear exactly what State inspector general Steve Linick plans to provide Congress during the private Wednesday briefing. But it comes amid the House Democrats' impeachment investigation, which has been fueled by the US Intelligence Community's inspector general's review of a complaint by a whistleblower who alleged ... Donald Trump sought help from Ukraine's government to interfere in the 2020 elections. One congressional aide described the State inspector general's request as 'highly unusual and cryptically worded.'" ~~~

      ~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: Linick wrote that he sought &"'to discuss and provide staff with copies of documents,' according to an invitation reviewed by The New York Times. It said the documents had been given to [him] by the State Department's acting legal adviser, but did not provide additional information or indicate whether Mr. Pompeo was aware of the action." ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's impossible to know what "urgent" matter Linick wishes to reveal to Congressional staff. It could be largely procedural matters, OR it could involve Rudy Giuliani & exculpate Pompeo & other State Department officials, OR it could be a bombshell that blows up in Pompeo's and Trump's faces. If the info is explosive, let's hope there's a leaker among those staffers.

Bill Barr, International P.I. Barbie Nadeau of the Daily Beast: Bill Barr & U.S. Attorney John Durham went to Rome last week "on an under-the-radar mission that was only planned a few days in advance. An official with the embassy confirmed to The Daily Beast that they had to scramble to accommodate Barr's sudden arrival.... Barr and Durham are looking into the events that led to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and suddenly all roads were leading to Rome.... Barr and Durham were especially interested in what the Italian secret service knew about Joseph Mifsud, the erstwhile professor from Malta who had allegedly promised then candidate Donald Trump's campaign aide George Papadopoulos he could deliver Russian 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. The Italian Justice Ministry public records show that Mifsud had applied for police protection in Italy after disappearing from Link University where he worked and, in doing so, had given a taped deposition to explain just why people might want to harm him." Barr & Durham listened to the tape & "were shown other evidence the Italians had on Mifsud." ~~~

~~~ Patrick Wintour & Luke Harding of the Guardian: Bill Barr "met UK intelligence agencies in the summer to discuss Britain potentially cooperating with Donald Trump's administration on an inquiry examining the FBI's investigation into alleged collusion with Russia, according to sources.... The meeting was formally about the risks and opportunities of new technologies but Barr also raised his inquiries into the FBI investigation. A Whitehall official said the issue of UK cooperation was discussed informally and only on the margins of the meeting."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Bill "Barr appears determined to discredit the special counsel investigation's finding that Russia engaged in 'sweeping and systematic' interference in our election on Trump's behalf. Which raises the question: What if Barr's activities -- whether by coincidence or design -- end up chilling how intelligence officials respond to the next foreign effort to sabotage a U.S. presidential election on Trump's behalf?... Current and former officials are alarmed by Barr's direct involvement in the investigation into the probe's origins currently being run by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.... 'There's a message to our intelligence community, which is, "Don't go there,"' [Rep. Tom] Malinowski [D-NJ] told me. 'They're being investigated for doing their jobs the last time.'... All this feeds into the ballooning Ukraine scandal as well.... We already know that Barr's Justice Department helped direct efforts to keep Congress from learning of the whistleblower complaint.... Barr didn't recuse himself from that, despite being personally named in the complaint." (Also linked yesterday.)

Understanding Rudy. Do you think Giuliani is still angry about this moment from a 2008 Democratic presidential debate? It was an epithet that stuck.

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani ... has hired his own lawyer to represent him in the House's fast-moving impeachment investigation into the president. The former New York mayor tapped Jon Sale, a former Watergate prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney, in what's shaping up to be a battle with Democrats over documents tied to Giuliani's efforts to pressure Ukraine's leader on behalf of the president to investigate Joe Biden." ~~~

... Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Rudy Giuliani thinks Congress' probe into the president is wrong, and he wants to sue those behind it. Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night, Giuliani proposed bringing a lawsuit against House Democrats for investigating the president in the wake of revelations involving Trump's interactions with Ukraine. The House launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump after it was revealed he had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden. Congressional oversight of the presidency is one of the most fundamental pillars of American government, but Giuliani thinks Congress' actions violate Trump's constitutional rights. 'They are doing extraordinary things. For example, they are violating -- they're interfering with the president in exercising his rights under Article II: The president United States conducts the foreign policy of the United States,' Giuliani said. 'They're calling foreign leaders. They are going to foreign capitals.' 'This is worse than McCarthy!" he later added...." Mrs. McC: Presumably Rudy means Joe McCarthy, not Kevin McCarthy. It's hard to be worse than Kevin McCarthy. As the wag who writes New York's "Intelligencer" headlines summarizes it, "Giuliani wants to sue Congress for using a power laid out in the Constitution." Well, yes, but the Constitution is a document in tension with itself.

~~~ Rudy Turns on "Honest" Lutsenko. Heidi Przybyla & Allan Smith of NBC News: "For much of this year, Rudy Giuliani was counting on Ukraine's former chief prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, to reopen a dormant investigation into an energy company where Joe Biden's son Hunter had once served as a board member.... In an early May phone call with NBC, Giuliani called Lutsenko a 'much more honest guy' than the previous, Kremlin-aligned prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, whom the Ukrainian Parliament sacked for failing to crack down on corruption.... In a White House transcript of a July 25 phone call, President Trump seemed to admonish the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for firing Lutsenko.... But in a series of interviews ... this weekend, Lutsenko said he could find no evidence of wrongdoing involving the Bidens and violations of Ukrainian law.... Giuliani swiftly turned on the man who he'd been corresponding with for months. 'Mr. Lutsenko has been fired by the current president. Mr. Lutsenko is exactly the prosecutor that Joe Biden put in in order to tank the case,' Giuliani told CBS News Sunday." ~~~

~~~ Rudy's Elves. Michael Sallah, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Congress is demanding information from two men who carried out a campaign to discredit Joe Biden under Giuliani's direction.... Letters were sent to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukrainian-American business partners who arranged the meetings between Giuliani and top Ukrainian prosecutors over the last year.... A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in July found that, under Giuliani's direction, Parnas and Fruman carried out a whirlwind campaign to unearth information to damage Biden's candidacy and press Ukraine prosecutors to investigate accusations that Ukrainian agents plotted to rig the 2016 election to favor Hillary Clinton by leaking evidence against Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in what became a cornerstone of the Mueller investigation. Parnas and Fruman traveled to Kiev, New York, Warsaw and Paris to meet with Ukrainian leaders, raising questions ... about whether they were blurring the lines of what US citizens are allowed to do without registering as foreign agents.... Parnas ... has dined with the president in Washington...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Missed This. Brett Samuels: "The intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) on Monday appeared to push back on allegations that the rules regarding whistleblower reports had been changed shortly before the complaint regarding President Trump's dealings with Ukraine was filed. The Office of the Inspector General issued a four-page news release in which it made clear that the whistleblower complaint focused on Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president was processed under procedures put in place in May 2018. The inspector general wrote that under the statute, a complainant is not required to have firsthand knowledge of the matter they are referring.... The clarification came as Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have claimed the rules for filing a complaint were changed just before the whistleblower on the Ukraine call came forward.... Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Monday asking for clarity about a reported change in the whistleblower complaint process that no longer required complainants to have firsthand knowledge." (Also linked yesterday.)

Daniel Lippman & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The Trump White House upgraded the security of the National Security Council's codeword system in the spring of 2018, according to two former Trump White House officials familiar with the matter, as part of an effort to ferret out and deter leaks.... That highly classified system is being newly scrutinized in light of a whistleblower complaint alleging that national security officials used the system -- meant for storing information classified at the highest level -- to conceal politically embarrassing conversations.... While [hiding embarassing material is] not necessarily an illegal act, it does run counter to an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2009 that says information can't be classified to 'conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error' or 'prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.'"

Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A government watchdog group asked a federal judge on Tuesday to issue an emergency order requiring the White House to preserve records of all of President Donald Trump's calls with foreign leaders.... The case, which accuses the Trump administration of failing to meet its legal obligations to create -- and properly save -- records of Trump's and other officials' conversations with foreign leaders, was originally filed in May. But the plaintiffs are now arguing that the judge needs to take immediate action in light of recent events.... US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ... has strongly and repeatedly suggested that the government should consider giving a voluntary assurance, as opposed to having her formally rule on the request filed by the challengers for an emergency order and issue a decision that she said one side 'might not appreciate.'"

Maybe Fox "News" Won't Tell Them. Maureen Groppe of USA Today: "A new poll shows that only four in 10 Republicans believe ... Donald Trump talked to the Ukrainian president about investigating political rival Joe Biden, even though Trump has acknowledged doing so. That compares with 85% of Democrats and 61% of independents surveyed by Monmouth University Poll who said Trump 'probably did' mention the possibility of an investigation into the Biden family during a July phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky." Mrs. McC: Or maybe they're just generally ignorant.

Anita Kumar of Politico: "House investigators are looking into an allegation that groups -- including at least one foreign government -- tried to ingratiate themselves to ... Donald Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them. It's a previously unreported part of a broader examination by the House Oversight Committee, included in the Democrats' impeachment inquiry, into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties. 'Now we're looking at near raw bribery,' said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a House Oversight Committee member who chairs the subcommittee with jurisdiction over Trump's hotel in Washington. 'That was the risk from day one -- foreign governments and others trying to seek favor because we know Trump pays attention to this.... It's an obvious attempt to curry favor with him.'" Mrs. McC: Kumar doesn't say so explicitly, but I think we can presume these entities paid for the empty rooms. You can see the advantage to Trump of bought-and-paid-for empty rooms: little or no overhead.

** Trump Is Crazy ... and Violent. Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico -- by noon the next day.... Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That's not allowed either, they told him.... Mr. Trump's order to close the border was a decision point that touched off a frenzied week of presidential rages, round-the-clock staff panic and far more White House turmoil than was known at the time. By the end of the week, the seat-of-the-pants president had backed off his threat but had retaliated with the beginning of a purge of the aides who had tried to contain him. Today, as Mr. Trump is surrounded by advisers less willing to stand up to him, his threat to seal off the country from a flood of immigrants remains active. "You are making me look like a [fucking] idiot!" Mr. Trump shouted...." And so forth. Read on.

Waste, Fraud & Abuse the Pentagon Way. Martin de Bourmont & Sharon Weinberger in Yahoo! News: "In December 2016, just a few weeks before moving into the White House..., Donald Trump tweeted that once he was in office, 'billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases.'... Yet within two years of Trump's entrance into the White House, [the Pentagon's best pennypincher Shay] Assad would find himself removed from his job, and his efforts to save money and recover hundreds of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent spending tabled. His treatment, he contends, was the direct result of his attempts to save the Pentagon money and identify potential contract fraud, which brought him into conflict with the Pentagon's top weapons buyer." Thanks to Anonymous for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Fellow-traveler. Rebecca Fishbein of Splinter is amused that "Nazi-adjacent [former] Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka" is traveling with Mike Pompeo "to Italy, Vatican City, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Greece.... The trip does not appear to include Hungary, where Gorka is a wanted man, which is a bummer." (Also linked yesterday.)

Spencer Hsu & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A veteran federal judge on Monday warned U.S. prosecutors either to charge former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe or to drop their investigation into whether he lied to investigators about an unauthorized media disclosure, saying their indecision was undermining the credibility of the Justice Department. If a decision is not made, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of Washington, D.C., said at a hearing that he would order the Justice Department to release internal FBI documents related to McCabe's firing by Nov. 15. The extraordinary warning by Walton -- a 2001 President George W. Bush appointee and former presiding judge of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- marked the latest turbulence in an investigation that McCabe's defenders say is a move by the Trump administration to punish the president's perceived political enemies.... Walton spoke after Justice attorneys argued in private before him for the latest postponement in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over documents about the FBI's investigation of McCabe, which the government has declined to release citing potential interference with a law enforcement proceeding."

Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Former GOP Rep. Chris Collins on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges related to insider trading, hours after he resigned his New York congressional seat. Collins, who was the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2016, was indicted in August by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. He was accused of using non-public information stemming from his relationship with an Australian medical biotech firm to help his family make illegal stock trades to avoid more than $768,000 in losses. He initially pleaded not guilty after he was first charged in 2018. Collins, 69, on Tuesday, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false statements. He faces up to five years in prison on each count along with three years of supervised release. He also faces $250,000 in fines on each count. He is slated to be sentenced in January 2020."

Kate Irby of the Babylon Fresno Bee: "Rep. Devin Nunes filed another lawsuit this week drawing attention to what he believes was unfair news coverage of him in 2018, this time suing a magazine writer who detailed how the California congressman's family had moved its farming operations to Iowa. The complaint filed in an Iowa federal court is Nunes' fifth lawsuit this year. It's the fourth in which he alleges that groups conspired to damage his chances at re-election last year, and his second complaint against a news organization. In the new case, Nunes is suing magazine writer Ryan Lizza and New York-based Hearst Magazines. The complaint centers on a September 2018 story in Esquire magazine called, 'Devin Nunes' Family Farm Is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret.' The so-called secret in the story was that the family had moved its dairy operation to Iowa in a community that relied on labor from undocumented immigrants.... Nunes confirmed in the lawsuit that his family has owned a dairy in Sibley, Iowa, for over a decade, but says Lizza's and Hearst's characterization of it as a 'politically explosive secret' was defamatory to Nunes." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To avoid a costly lawsuit, I won't tell you what I think of the ridiculous Devin Nunes & his shady schemes patriotic foray into the Heartland. I mean, look what happened to Devin's Cow.

Presidential Race 2020

Maggie Severns & Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $125 million over the past three months, Trump's campaign announced Tuesday -- a massive total that disturbed some Democrats who believe their party should be more focused on countering Trump's head start in the 2020 presidential election. The two committees ended September with more than $156 million cash on hand, they announced. They did not disclose individual totals for the Trump campaign or for the Republican National Committee, which will be reported later this month."

Will Wilkinson in a New York Times op-ed: "The president's bungled bid to coerce Ukraine's leader into helping the Trump 2020 re-election campaign smear a rival struck 'decide it at the ballot box' off the menu of reasonable opinion forever. Mr. Trump's brazen attempt to cheat his way into a second term stands so scandalously exposed that there can be no assurance of a fair election if he's allowed to stay in office. Resolving the question of the president's fitness at the ballot box isn't really an option, much less the best option, when the question boils down to whether the ballot box will be stuffed. Impeachment is therefore imperative, not only to protect the integrity of next year's elections but to secure America's continued democratic existence. If the House does its job, it will fall to Senate Republicans to reveal, in their decision to convict (or not), their preferred flavor of republic: constitutional or banana."

Bill Scher in Politico Magazine with a harsh reality chek: "America's reward for convicting Trump [-- thus removing him from office --] would be President Michael Richard Pence.... President Pence would likely be harder for Democrats to dispatch in the 2020 general election than an impeached but still in office President Trump. Pence's net favorability, while underwater, is better than Trump's. Upon entering the Oval Office, the low-key Midwesterner might prove willing and able turn the page, restore calm and soothe an exhausted electorate." Mrs. McC: If Trump's popularity tanks -- which at this point seems unlikely -- and his unpopularity threatens to turn the Senate Democratic, @MachiavelliMitch will lead a behind-closed-doors charge to remove the Orange Menace from office. By promising to hold a Senate trial if Trump is impeached, Mitch has already laid the groundwork to do that.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida Public "Education." Josh Fiallo of the Tampa Bay Times: "The University of Florida will pay $50,000 for Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is a senior adviser for ... Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, to speak on campus next week.... ACCENT Speakers Bureau, the student organization that's hosting the event..., is run by UF's student government and pays speakers using students' activity fees, which are $19.06 per credit hour. The organization says Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, who are dating, will be the first speakers of the fall semester.... The immediate reaction on social media to ACCENT's announcement of Trump Jr. and Guilfoyleon on Tuesday was near-completely negative."

Texas. Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "A Texas jury rejected former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger's self-defense claims and convicted her of murder on Tuesday in the fatal 2018 shooting of an innocent man eating ice cream in his own home after mistaking his apartment for her own.... The 31-year-old Guyger, who was fired from the Dallas Police Department days after the shooting, faces a prison sentence of five to 99 years."

The Commentariat -- October 1, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Happy Birthday, Jimmy. Bill Barrow of the AP: "Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 95th birthday, becoming the first U.S. president to reach that milestone as he continues his humanitarian work and occasionally wades back into politics and policy debates almost four decades after leaving office. Carter, who served from 1977-1981 and still lives in tiny Plains, Georgia, planned no public celebrations on Tuesday."

Cover-up, Ctd. Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused the Democratic chairs of three House committees investigating the State Department's role in Rudy Giuliani's Ukraine efforts of trying to 'intimidate, bully, and treat improperly' five State Department officials called for depositions. In the fierce letter addressed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Pompeo blasted the depositions in the impeachment probe as rushed and potentially in violation of executive privilege, accused committee staff of not following protocol, and appeared to say the officials will not show up. 'I will not tolerate such tactics, and I will use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals whom I am proud to lead and serve alongside at the Department of State,' Pompeo wrote."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday reiterated his desire to meet with and question the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's interactions with the leader of Ukraine ignited an impeachment inquiry. The president, who in recent days attacked the whistleblower as a 'fraud' and attempted to undermine their [Mrs. McC: his] credibility, questioned why he doesn't have the right to interview the anonymous individual. '[W]hy aren't we entitled to interview & learn everything about the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him,' Trump tweeted. 'This is simply about a phone conversation that could not have been nicer, warmer, or better. No pressure at all (as confirmed by Ukrainian Pres.). It is just another Democrat Hoax!'... Trump claimed the author of the complaint 'has all second hand information' and that 'almost everything' the whistleblower recounted about the president's call with Ukraine was wrong. But neither of those things are [Mrs. McC: is] true.... The Whistleblower Protection Act makes it a violation for federal agencies to threaten retaliation against individuals who come forward to raise concerns of wrongdoing within the government."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Bill "Barr appears determined to discredit the special counsel investigation's finding that Russia engaged in 'sweeping and systematic' interference in our election on Trump's behalf. Which raises the question: What if Barr's activities -- whether by coincidence or design -- end up chilling how intelligence officials respond to the next foreign effort to sabotage a U.S. presidential election on Trump's behalf?... Current and former officials are alarmed by Barr's direct involvement in the investigation into the probe's origins currently being run by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.... 'There's a message to our intelligence community, which is, "Don't go there,"' [Rep. Tom] Malinowski [D-NJ] told me. 'They're being investigated for doing their jobs the last time.'... All this feeds into the ballooning Ukraine scandal as well.... We already know that Barr's Justice Department helped direct efforts to keep Congress from learning of the whistleblower complaint.... Barr didn't recuse himself from that, despite being personally named in the complaint."

Missed This. Brett Samuels: "The intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) on Monday appeared to push back on allegations that the rules regarding whistleblower reports had been changed shortly before the complaint regarding President Trump's dealings with Ukraine was filed. The Office of the Inspector General issued a four-page news release in which it made clear that the whistleblower complaint focused on Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president was processed under procedures put in place in May 2018. The inspector general wrote that under the statute, a complainant is not required to have firsthand knowledge of the matter they are referring.... The clarification came as Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have claimed the rules for filing a complaint were changed just before the whistleblower on the Ukraine call came forward.... Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Monday asking for clarity about a reported change in the whistleblower complaint process that no longer required complainants to have firsthand knowledge."

Rudy's Elves. Michael Sallah, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Congress is demanding information from two men who carried out a campaign to discredit Joe Biden under Giuliani's direction.... Letters were sent to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukrainian-America business partners who arranged the meetings between Giuliani and top Ukrainian prosecutors over the last year.... A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in July found that, under Giuliani's direction, Parnas and Fruman carried out a whirlwind campaign to unearth information to damage Biden's candidacy and press Ukraine prosecutors to investigate accusations that Ukrainian agents plotted to rig the 2016 election to favor Hillary Clinton by leaking evidence against Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in what became a cornerstone of the Mueller investigation. Parnas and Fruman traveled to Kiev, New York, Warsaw and Paris to meet with Ukrainian leaders, raising questions ... about whether they were blurring the lines of what US citizens are allowed to do without registering as foreign agents."

Waste, Fraud & Abuse the Pentagon Way. Martin de Bourmont & Sharon Weinberger in Yahoo! News: "In December 2016, just a few weeks before moving into the White House..., Donald Trump tweeted that once he was in office, 'billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases.'... Yet within two years of Trump's entrance into the White House, [the Pentagon's best pennypincher Shay] Assad would find himself removed from his job, and his efforts to save money and recover hundreds of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent spending tabled. His treatment, he contends, was the direct result of his attempts to save the Pentagon money and identify potential contract fraud, which brought him into conflict with the Pentagon's top weapons buyer." Thanks to Anonymous for the link.

Fellow-traveler. Rebecca Fishbein of Splinter is amused that "Nazi-adjacent [former] Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka" is traveling with Mike Pompeo "to Italy, Vatican City, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Greece.... The trip does not appear to include Hungary, where Gorka is a wanted man, which is a bummer."

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump, Inc. -- The Criminal Enterprise, Ctd.

Elliot Hannon of Slate: "It's now abundantly clear that PresidentTrump is actively deploying the resources of the U.S. government explicitly to bolster his chances of reelection in 2020. The recent whistleblower complaint revealed one part of the two-pronged strategy: leverage U.S. military aid to Ukraine to compel the Ukrainian government to dredge up old allegations on political rival Joe Biden. The second aspect of the Trump vindication-through-vilification reelection strategy has led Trump and his allies to investigate the investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election to try to muddy the water sufficiently that Trump looks clean by comparison -- or by confusion. That effort is also being propelled by the power vested in the highest offices of the U.S. government...." ~~~

~~~ Charles Pierce: "It's become plain at this point that the ongoing 'review' of the origins of the investigation into the Russian ratfcking of the 2016 election has as one of its primary purposes developing an alternative narrative to the plain fact that the Russians wanted to help the president* become president*, and that he accepted their help, and that this alternative narrative then will be used to discredit the revelations in the whistleblower's complaint, and that this project now commands the attention of, at the very least, the office of the president*, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice. The line for the rollercoaster at Depositionland is getting longer by the minute."

Bill Barr, Consigliere. Mark Mazzetti & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call. The White House restricted access to the call's transcript to a small group of the president's aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America's closest allies. And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.... In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.'s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton." The Hill has a summary of the Times report here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Drum: "... aside from the fact that this was never really a legitimate investigation to start with, we aren't talking about Trump keeping himself at arm's length and letting the chips fall where they may. We're talking about Donald Trump explicitly getting on the phone to encourage an ally to help him. By itself that may or may not be a big deal. But it sure shows a pattern of behavior, doesn't it? If your goal is to make a case that Trump has been abusing the power and influence of the presidency to benefit himself personally, this is one more brick in the wall." ~~~

     ~~~ digby republishes long excerpts from the NYT report linked above & from the WashPo report linked next. ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies' examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter. Barr's personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats ... that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president's adversaries.... The direct involvement of the nation's top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.... Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter." ~~~

~~~ Alexander Mallin & Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "As a part of his review of the origins of the investigation into members of ... Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, Attorney General William Barr asked President Trump on several occasions to initiate introductions between him and the leaders of Australia and Italy, among other countries, a Department of Justice official told ABC News on Monday.... It's not clear whether there's any other example of the country's lead law enforcement official traveling overseas to personally investigate an issue that the president believes could benefit him politically." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "In theory, there's nothing wrong with cross-checking the FBI's work to make sure it handled its investigation of Trump correctly. But everything about this investigation suggests Barr is carrying out a political vendetta at Trump's orders to intimidate bureaucrats who would defy the authoritarian and lawless president.... He has repeatedly cast the FBI investigation as a coup attempt.... Trump's loyalists have expressed almost uncontainable excitement about Barr's work.... There is little reason to believe Barr is acting fairly at all and a great deal of reason to suspect he is carrying out his duties as hatchet man for his authoritarian boss."

P.S. There's This. Corrine Ramsey of the Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said Monday that the U.S. would participate in a lawsuit filed by President Trump that seeks to block a subpoena for eight years of his tax returns. In a brief letter to the judge, U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Geoffrey Berman and Jeffrey Oestericher, chief of the office's civil division, said the U.S. would file a submission in the case by Wednesday. The letter comes in a dispute over a subpoena that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. sent to accounting firm Mazars USA LLP requesting the president's personal and business tax returns dating to 2011. In an attempt to block the subpoena, Mr. Trump sued Mr. Vance and Mazars, arguing the request was unconstitutional and part of a campaign by Democrats to harass him. Prosecutors in Mr. Vance's office have said their subpoena is valid and any dispute should be heard in state court. Mazars has said it would follow its legal obligations. Federal prosecutors haven't spelled out their reasons for entering the case." Mrs. McC: For some reason, the story in full loaded for me. Don't count on it, but you might be able to get there via Google. The lede is the main point.

Mike Pompeo, Capo. Zachary Cohen & Jamie Gangel of CNN: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 phone call between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has come under scrutiny following last week's release of a whistleblower complaint dealing, in part, with circumstances surrounding that conversation, a source familiar told CNN.... Pompeo was asked about the whistleblower complaint last week while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and said at the time he had not yet read it in full. When asked if he or his staff acted improperly Pompeo did say that, to the best of his knowledge, 'each of the actions that were undertaken by State Department officials was entirely appropriate.' [Pompeo] offered a similar response during an ABC News interview eight days ago when questioned about the complaint and reports that Trump had repeatedly pressed the Ukrainian leader to investigate the Bidens with help from Giuliani.'You just gave me a report about a (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I've seen,' Pompeo said at the time." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Martha Raddatz of ABC News asked Pompeo a straightforward question: "What do you know about" the phone call between Trump & Zelensky? Pompeo responded with a feint about not having read the whistleblower's complaint. He did not answer her question.

     ~~~ AND Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News: "... in a Sept. 22 interview with John Roberts on Fox News Sunday, Pompeo defended Trump's conduct during conversations with Ukrainian leaders as having 'been 100% appropriate, 100% lawful.' Roberts then asked if it would be a problem for Trump to seek some kind of quid pro quo arrangement with Ukraine. Democrats have alleged that Trump used millions in military aid as a pressure tactic to get Ukraine's help. 'John, you're asking me to provide legal analysis on a hypothetical on a report I haven't seen,' Pompeo said. 'Come on.'"

~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone: “The whistleblower ... wrote in his complaint that 'approximately a dozen' White House officials were on the line, as was T. Ulrich Brechbuhl of the State Department. As the Journal points out, the State Department disputed Brechbuhl's involvement last week. The revelation that the State Department's top official [-- Mike Pompeo --] was on the call adds a new dimension to the scandal.... It appears Pompeo's involvement may go far deeper than this, though. On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani ... who has no official government role, said on Face the Nation that Pompeo knew of his efforts to convince Ukraine to look into the Bidens, and that he did so with the State Department's blessing.... House Democrats have already taken steps to uncover the extent of Pompeo's involvement. On Friday, three committee chairmen subpoenaed him after he failed to voluntarily provide documents related to Ukraine."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that the White House is 'trying to find out' the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower who filed a complaint about the president's interaction with Ukraine. 'We're trying to find out about a whistleblower,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he knows the person's identity, alleging that they reported 'things that are incorrect.'... 'As the acting DNI testified last week, the law and policy supports protection of the identity of the whistleblower from disclosure and from retaliation. No exceptions exist for any individual,' [Mark] Zaid[, an attorney for the whistleblower,] said." Update: The New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

David Remnick of the New Yorker writes that Trump's vengeful attacks on Adam Schiff & the whistleblower and his other "increasingly lurid threats of retribution" have so discomfitted federal officials that some may come forward to testify against him.

WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Sept. 30 ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Several news organizations have fact-checked Trump's claim. I linked to one yesterday; here are a few more:

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "The original report in the Federalist focused on a change in the form, suggesting it was somehow related to the recent whistleblower case. There is no evidence that is correct. In any case, the IG's process for handling whistleblower allegations is determined not by a form but by the law and related policy documents. The key document, ICD 120, has been virtually unchanged since 2014. Contrary to the speculation, the whistleblower used the 2018 form, not the new online form. The IG then investigated and found that his allegations were credible and that Congress should be notified." ~~~

~~~ Jane Timm of NBC News: "... Donald Trump and his allies advanced a conspiracy theory about the Ukraine whistleblower over the last few days alleging that the intelligence community had recently changed the rules requiring whistleblowers to base their claims on first-hand information. But the law hasn't changed, and there is no requirement that whistleblowers stick to first-hand information in their complaints precisely because those filings are designed to trigger official investigations that would uncover such first-hand information, three attorneys who represent whistleblowers told NBC News." ~~~

~~~ Holmes Lybrand & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Monday's tweet was at least Trump's second reference to the theory, which apparently was initially propagated by the right-wing website The Federalist on September 27.... This is false. The Federalist reading of the form is inaccurate and although the submission form that whistleblowers from the intelligence community fill out was revised in August 2019, the revision did not change the rules on who can submit a whistleblower complaint."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday questioned whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, should be arrested for treason for his description of a phone call Mr. Trump had with the president of Ukraine during a recent congressional hearing.... Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Schiff, of lying to Congress when Mr. Schiff summarized a portion of what Mr. Trump said to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a July 25 phone call.... During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr. Schiff addressed a portion of the reconstructed transcript and introduced his summary of it saying, 'Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates.' Then, Mr. Schiff summarized Mr. Trump's comments and said: 'We've been very good to your country, very good. No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what, I don't see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though.' The summary appears to be drawn from several portions of the call, including statements from Mr. Trump to Mr. Zelensky." There's a Daily Beast item here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Dimwit-in-Chief. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump is currently facing impeachment for demanding investigations of his political enemies (in this case, the FBI agents who looked into his Russia ties and Joe Biden). His response to this charge is, among other things, to demand investigations of even more political enemies. The president's rants include demands that Rep. Adam Schiff be investigated for 'Fraud' and 'Treason.'... [Monday] he proceeded to demands for Schiff's arrest[.] This is literally what Trump is being impeached for."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Journalists, perhaps seeking to appear balanced, have sometimes described Trump's claims about Biden as 'unsubstantiated' or 'unsupported.' That is misleading, because it suggests more muddiness in the factual record than actually exists. Trump isn't making unproven charges against Biden. He is blatantly lying about him. He and his defenders are spreading a conspiracy theory that is the precise opposite of the truth. Like most effective conspiracy theories, this one is built around a speck of something real. Hunter Biden's place on Burisma's board was untoward, even if it's preposterous for Trump to complain about nepotistic corruption. Biden's son doesn't seem to have broken any laws, but the way he traded on his name was still sleazy.... But ... if [Trump] succeeds in defaming Biden today, he'll be even more audacious in using the same strategy against anyone else who threatens him. What's at stake ... [is] how much Trump can erode the political salience of reality, and how much the media helps him."

John Harwood of CNBC: "The Republican defenses for ... Donald Trump's conduct on Ukraine simply don't hold up.... even cursory scrutiny of evidence that has emerged so far knocks down assorted GOP arguments like shanties in a hurricane. Here's a brief review[.] Mrs. McC: Although Harwood doesn't go into detail about each "defense," his review is actually a fairly comprehensive line-up of Republicans' failed attempts to defend Trump. If you haven't had time to read the details, Harwood provides a good overview. ~~~

~~~ For a similar view, writ florid, Charles Pierce: "... this weekend, the small group of people still willing to go on television and defend El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago put on an ensemble performance of such glorious incompetence and mendacity that even the hosts of The Sunday Showz found themselves gagging on the undercooked codswallop they were being asked to swallow. To sum up: Stephen Miller, the White House dime-store Machiavelli, and not a man accustomed to daylight, went on Fox News with Chris Wallace, and Wallace tore him several new ones. Rudy Giuliani, now performing on the national political stage as Trashcan Man from The Stand, went on ABC with George Stephanopoulos and had another public episode. Rep. Jim Jordan went on CNN with Jake Tapper, and Tapper pantsed him. Rep. Kevin McCarthy ... went on 60 Minutes with Scott Pelley, and Pelley <" href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trying-defend-trump-gop-leader-caught-guard-reality">skewered him with the president*'s own words." ~~~

~~~ Matt Ford of the New Republic: "[The] flailing performance [of Trump's defenders] this weekend highlights a deeper problem for the president. If the House impeaches him, and the Senate holds a trial, Trump will have to make an affirmative case for acquittal to 100 senators, many of whom hold public or private concerns about his fitness to be president. So far, Trump's defenders haven't even come close to making a convincing argument in his favor. The biggest weakness in Trump's defense is that -- as the White House's own summary transcript of the Zelenskiy call proves -- he actually did what Democrats allege: abuse his power by urging a foreign government to undermine his domestic political rivals.... [Also over the weekend,] Trump's Twitter feed glowed with an incandescent rage that only his deep sense of personal victimhood can sustain.... It goes without saying that these rants don't amount to an affirmative case for the Senate to acquit him...." The obfuscation that worked for Trump during the Russia investigation won't work on the Ukraine scandal because Trump himself has already provided the smoking gun: the memcon of his conversation with Zelensky. "The question this time isn't 'What happened?' but 'What are we going to do about it?'"

Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... multiple current and former administration officials say [former national security advisor John Bolton] was at odds with [Donald Trump] over a July phone call with the president of Ukraine. Three officials said Bolton argued against Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25 because he was concerned the president wasn't coordinating with advisers on what to say and might air personal grievances.... Bolton was among the senior members of the president's national security team, including Vice President Mike Pence, who did not listen in on the Zelenskiy call, officials said."

Alex Pascal in a New York Times op-ed: "As the former senior director of the National Security Council's Office of the Executive Secretariat, I helped oversee the production and record-keeping of presidential memorandums of conversation (called memcons) for both telephone and in-person interactions.... Based on my experience, I believe the so-called transcript the White House has released of the July phone call might not fully reflect the president's conversation with Mr. Zelensky. Furthermore, the whistle-blower complaint raises very troubling questions about how administration lawyers and officials handled the call memo. What the whistle-blower describes is, in my experience, highly unusual and cause for concern.... I wonder whether National Security Council staff members were directed to not only 'lock down' the memcon but also to destroy their own notes of the call, potentially in violation of the Presidential Records Act." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Sergey Karazy of Reuters: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kiev was unlikely to publish its version of a transcript of a July 25 phone call with ... Donald Trump, at the heart of an impeachment inquiry in Washington." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Balmforth, et al., of Reuters: "The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between ... Donald Trump and ... Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump's calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican president may have jeopardized national security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would be prepared to discuss the issue with Washington if it sent Moscow a signal, but that such disclosures were not normal diplomatic practice. 'Of course their publication is to some extent only possible by mutual agreement of the parties...,' Peskov said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Clarissa Ward & Salma Abdelaziz of CNN: "Two Ukrainians named in the whistleblower report that touched off an impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump have told CNN that his personal lawyer actively pushed for an investigation into his political rivals' dealings in the country. Andreii Telizhenko, who worked in the Ukrainian embassy in Washington between December 2015 and May 2016, says Rudy Giuliani approached him for a face-to-face meeting in May of this year. And Sergeii Leschenko, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, says Giuliani began applying pressure on Zelensky's team to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter shortly after the former comedian was elected in April 2019. Each has a different perspective on the crisis -- Telizhenko believes that the issues surrounding Biden merit further investigation -- but both agree that Giuliani was open in his motivations.... Telizhenko is known for his repeated claims in the media that Democrats colluded with Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump and his team in an effort to boost Hilary Clinton's chances in the 2016 elections. These claims have been repeatedly debunked.... There is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Joe or Hunter Biden."

Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, in a Washington Post op-ed, explains "what a presidential phone call with a foreign leader looks like in a normal White House." McFaul contrasts a normal president-to-foreign-leader with President* Trump's call to President Zelensky. Useful to read if you have a WashPo subscription.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Intelligence Committee on Monday issued a subpoena to Rudy Giuliani..., Donald Trump's personal attorney, as part of House Democrats' rapidly intensifying impeachment inquiry. The subpoena, issued in consultation with the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight panels, seeks documents related to Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 contender and former Vice President Joe Biden. 'Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President,' Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote to Giuliani. Monday's letter was co-signed by Reps. Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings, who chair the Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, respectively." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Soundbites I've heard recently reveal Rudy has nearly lost his voice, no doubt as a result of screaming on the teevee & at print reporters.

Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: “The Senate would have to take up impeachment of ... Donald Trump if the House effectively votes to charge the president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday. 'I would have no choice but to take it up,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC. 'How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday warned against foreign interference in U.S. elections, threatening that nations seeking to meddle in the 2020 races will 'have a serious problem' on their hands. 'Look, 2018 was a big success story,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC, praising the Trump administration's efforts to safeguard last year's midterm elections." (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Lawyers for the House of Representatives revealed on Monday that they have reason to believe that the grand-jury redactions in special counsel Robert Mueller's report show that ... Donald Trump lied about his knowledge of his campaign's contacts with WikiLeaks. The attorneys made the stunning suggestion in a court filing as part of the House Judiciary Committee's bid for Mueller's grand-jury materials, which have remained secret by law.... To back up their claim, the House's legal team -- led by House General Counsel Douglas Letter -- cited a passage in Mueller's report about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's testimony that he 'recalled' Trump asking to be kept 'updated' about WikiLeaks' disclosures of Democratic National Committee emails. There is a grand-jury redaction in that passage, the lawyers note.... 'Those materials therefore have direct bearing on whether the president was untruthful, and further obstructed the special counsel's investigation, when in providing written responses to the special counsel's questions he denied being aware of any communications between his campaign and WikiLeaks,' they added."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "... the Republican chairmen of two Senate committees, Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, are asking Attorney General William Barr to investigate any ties between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. In a letter to Barr released on Monday, Johnson (R-Wis.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) pressed the Justice Department to probe any connection between Clinton and Ukrainian operatives. They said they have 'concerns about foreign assistance in the 2016 election that have not been thoroughly addressed.'"

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in an op-ed published Monday that President Trump's actions warrant impeachment and urged fellow Republicans not to support his reelection if he remains in office. In the piece for The Washington Post, Flake cited President Trump's July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son at a time when the White House had suspended military aid to Ukraine." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Americans are about evenly split over impeaching ... Donald Trump and removing him from office, as support for that move has risen among independents and Republicans, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after the announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry by House Democrats last week. About half, 47%, support impeaching the President and removing him from office, up from 41% who felt that way in a CNN poll in May.... Opposition stands at 45% in the new poll...."

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "There's another whistleblower complaint. It's about Trump's tax returns.... This summer an anonymous whistleblower approached the House [Ways & Mean] committee to say its concerns [about someone meddling with the IRS audit of Trump's tax audits] had been justified. The whistleblower offered credible allegations of 'evidence of possible misconduct,' specifically 'inappropriate efforts to influence' the audit of the president, according to a letter [Chair Richard] Neal [D-Mass.] sent to the treasury secretary. We don't know the complaint details, including who allegedly meddled with the audit or how, and whether the IRS complied. The complaint hasn't been released, and Neal said last week that he's still consulting with congressional lawyers about whether to make it public.... The allegations ... corroborate Democratic lawmakers' argument that oversight of the IRS's annual presidential audit is indeed a legitimate reason they -- and hopefully, eventually, the public -- should see Trump's taxes. It's hard to imagine how the federal judge in this case could now rule against the committee." ~~~

~~~ Colin Wilhelm of Bloomberg (Sept. 27): "A key House Democrat said he's consulting lawyers about whether to make public a complaint by a federal employee about possible misconduct in the Internal Revenue Service's auditing of ... Donald Trump. The complaint raises allegations about 'inappropriate efforts to influence' the audit process, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in August. Neal told reporters on Friday that a decision on releasing the complaint depends on advice he receives from lawyers for the House of Representatives." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I can't read Bloomberg any more because it blocks incognito views, so of course I missed Wilhelm's article last week. Luckily, it's the first of the month, so I haven't used up my two free stories yet. I read nearly to the bottom of Rampell's column before I was convinced by her links that it wasn't a spoof. Honestly, I thought she would end the column with the childish dénouement, "But it was all a dream."

What do mike & Karen pence say to each other before they say their prayers?

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Ousted national security adviser John Bolton put on display the deep schisms between himself and ... Donald Trump on North Korea, publicly breaking with his former boss on Monday about how best to get Kim Jong Un's regime to wind down its nuclear weapons program. At one of his first public appearances since his abrupt and rocky departure from the White House, Bolton did not name the president but delivered an unmistakable airing of grievances. Specifically, he threw cold water on the president's assertion that North Korea is ready to make a deal and gave his 'unvarnished' view that Kim would not voluntarily give up his nuclear weapons under current conditions." (Also linked yesterday.)

Renae Merle & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Chris Collins is resigning from Congress and expected to plead guilty to insider-trading charges on Tuesday, following allegations last year that the Republican from New York schemed with his son to avoid significant losses on a biotechnology investment. Collins, President Trump's first congressional supporter, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors. He is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court. Collins's son, Cameron; and another family member are scheduled to change their pleas on Thursday." This is an update of a breaking story linked earlier (and deleted). Here's the Daily Beast story. (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Benning of the Dallas Morning News: "The Texodus continues. Clarendon Rep. Mac Thornberry on Monday announced that he will not run for reelection next year, making the 13-term lawmaker the sixth Texas Republican in Congress to head for the exits ahead of the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Stieb of New York: On Friday, "Democratic Senator Ron Wyden revealed an 18-month investigation by the Senate Finance Committee determining that the National Rifle Association served as a 'foreign asset' for Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.... The Senate investigation displays a damning level of executive-suite involvement, including a 2015 trip from former NRA vice-president Pete Brownell, who visited Russia 'primarily or solely for the purpose of advancing personal business interests, rather than advancing the NRA's tax-exempt purpose.' Not only was Brownell — who later became the organization's president -- spending NRA funds for personal business, an email from Maria Butina to two senior NRA staffers reveals that he was in Russia because 'many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections.' The Senate investigation also found evidence of the NRA attempting to obscure house payments for the trip.... What separates this Senate investigation from other concerns the NRA is facing -- allegations of lavish executive spending as the organization deals with substantial cash-flow problems; multiple crises in leadership -- is that it could affect its status as a non-profit.... And according to Marc Owens -- the former head of the Internal Revenue Service division overseeing tax-exempt enterprises -- the NRA is unlikely to exist without its non-profit status." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised more than $25 million over the past three months, his presidential campaign said Tuesday, eclipsing his fundraising total from the second quarter of the year. Sanders's $25.3 million haul was fueled by some 1.4 million donations and bolstered by a strong final day of fundraising on Monday, which the campaign was its second-best day for donations since its launch in February. The staggering third-quarter total, the highest reported by any Democratic presidential hopeful so far this year, could help give Sanders a boost at a time when he has seen his support in the polls wane. His chief progressive rival, Sen. (D-Mass.), has risen in recent surveys."

Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg raked in over $19.1 million in the third quarter, a substantial amount but short the $24.8 million he raised in the second quarter. The South Bend, Ind., mayor's campaign added in a memo released on Tuesday that Buttigieg's number of unique donors grew by 182,000 to a total to 580,000 contributors. The campaign also said that the average contribution during the quarter was $32."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong/China. The AP is updating incidents & events surrounding the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in China. At 6 pm (local): "A Hong Kong police official says a pro-democracy protester was shot when an officer opened fire with his revolver during clashes Tuesday. It was the first time a protester has been shot, in an escalation of the monthslong unrest that has rocked the city." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is also liveblogging developments. Here's the lede "Right Now" (at 7 am ET): "President Trump sends congratulatory tweet to China's leader hours after violent protests break out across Hong Kong." Because what's not to congratulate about this:

New York Times photo.

News Lede

New York Times: "Jessye Norman, the majestic American soprano who brought a sumptuous, shimmering voice to a broad range of roles at the Metropolitan Opera and houses around the world, died on Monday in New York. She was 74."

The Commentariat -- September 30, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "There's new reporting this afternoon that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took part in the now-infamous call between ... Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky. Per the Wall Street Journal, Pompeo was one of the administration officials who listened in on the call: '... Mr. Pompeo's participation on the call hasn't been previously reported. Last week, a State Department official disputed the contention in a complaint filed under federal whistleblower laws by a Central Intelligence Agency officer that another top State Department official, counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl, listened in on the call.'... This weekend [Rudy Giuliani] said that Pompeo was 'aware' of what he was doing [in Ukraine]."

Mark Mazzetti & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call. The White House restricted access to the call's transcript to a small group of the president's aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America's closest allies. And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.... In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.'s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton." The Hill has a summary of the Times report here.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Intelligence Committee on Monday issued a subpoena to Rudy Giuliani..., Donald Trump's personal attorney, as part of House Democrats' rapidly intensifying impeachment inquiry. The subpoena, issued in consultation with the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight panels, seeks documents related to Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 contender and former Vice President Joe Biden. 'Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President,' Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote to Giuliani. Monday's letter was co-signed by Reps. Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings, who chair the Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, respectively."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that the White House is 'trying to find out' the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower who filed a complaint about the president's interaction with Ukraine. 'We're trying to find out about a whistleblower,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he knows the person's identity, alleging that they reported 'things that are incorrect.'... 'As the acting DNI testified last week, the law and policy supports protection of the identity of the whistleblower from disclosure and from retaliation. No exceptions exist for any individual,' [Mark] Zaid[, an attorney for the whistleblower,] said." Update: The New York Times report is here.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday questioned whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, should be arrested for treason for his description of a phone call Mr. Trump had with the president of Ukraine during a recent congressional hearing.... Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Schiff, of lying to Congress when Mr. Schiff summarized a portion of what Mr. Trump said to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a July 25 phone call.... During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr. Schiff addressed a portion of the reconstructed transcript and introduced his summary of it saying, 'Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates.' Then, Mr. Schiff summarized Mr. Trump's comments and said: 'We've been very good to your country, very good. No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what, I don't see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though.' The summary appears to be drawn from several portions of the call, including statements from Mr. Trump to Mr. Zelensky." There's a Daily Beast item here.

Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "The Senate would have to take up impeachment of ... Donald Trump if the House effectively votes to charge the president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday. 'I would have no choice but to take it up,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC. 'How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.'" ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday warned against foreign interference in U.S. elections, threatening that nations seeking to meddle in the 2020 races will 'have a serious problem' on their hands. 'Look, 2018 was a big success story,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC, praising the Trump administration's efforts to safeguard last year's midterm elections."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in an op-ed published Monday that President Trump’s actions warrant impeachment and urged fellow Republicans not to support his reelection if he remains in office. In the piece for The Washington Post, Flake cited President Trump's July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son at a time when the White House had suspended military aid to Ukraine." CNN's story is here.

Sergey Karazy of Reuters: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kiev was unlikely to publish its version of a transcript of a July 25 phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, at the heart of an impeachment inquiry in Washington."

Tom Balmforth, et al., of Reuters: "The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between ... Donald Trump and ... Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump's calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican president may have jeopardized national security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would be prepared to discuss the issue with Washington if it sent Moscow a signal, but that such disclosures were not normal diplomatic practice. 'Of course their publication is to some extent only possible by mutual agreement of the parties...,' Peskov said."

What do mike & Karen pence say to each other before they say their prayers?

Renae Merle & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Chris Collins is resigning from Congress and expected to plead guilty to insider-trading charges on Tuesday, following allegations last year that the Republican from New York schemed with his son to avoid significant losses on a biotechnology investment. Collins, President Trump's first congressional supporter, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors. He is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court. Collins's son, Cameron; and another family member are scheduled to change their pleas on Thursday." This is an update of a breaking story linked earlier (and deleted). Here's the Daily Beast story.

Tom Benning of the Dallas Morning News: "The Texodus continues. Clarendon Rep. Mac Thornberry on Monday announced that he will not run for reelection next year, making the 13-term lawmaker the sixth Texas Republican in Congress to head for the exits ahead of the 2020 election."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Ousted national security adviser John Bolton put on display the deep schisms between himself and ... Donald Trump on North Korea, publicly breaking with his former boss on Monday about how best to get Kim Jong Un's regime to wind down its nuclear weapons program. At one of his first public appearances since his abrupt and rocky departure from the White House, Bolton did not name the president but delivered an unmistakable airing of grievances. Specifically, he threw cold water on the president's assertion that North Korea is ready to make a deal and gave his 'unvarnished' view that Kim would not voluntarily give up his nuclear weapons under current conditions."

Matt Stieb of New York: On Friday, "Democratic Senator Ron Wyden revealed an 18-month investigation by the Senate Finance Committee determining that the National Rifle Association served as a 'foreign asset' for Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.... The Senate investigation displays a damning level of executive-suite involvement, including a 2015 trip from former NRA vice-president Pete Brownell, who visited Russia 'primarily or solely for the purpose of advancing personal business interests, rather than advancing the NRA's tax-exempt purpose.' Not only was Brownell -- who later became the organization's president -- spending NRA funds for personal business, an email from Maria Butina to two senior NRA staffers reveals that he was in Russia because 'many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections.' The Senate investigation also found evidence of the NRA attempting to obscure house payments for the trip.... What separates this Senate investigation from other concerns the NRA is facing -- allegations of lavish executive spending as the organization deals with substantial cash-flow problems; multiple crises in leadership -- is that it could affect its status as a non-profit.... And according to Marc Owens -- the former head of the Internal Revenue Service division overseeing tax-exempt enterprises -- the NRA is unlikely to exist without its non-profit status."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Treason, Bribery, or Other High Crimes," Ctd.

** Steve Coll of the New Yorker provides an excellent synopsis of the impeachment story, beginning at the beginning. Besides being a long-time writer & reporter on international affairs, Coll is dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He's trustworthy.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a private appeal on Sunday to Democrats not to squander their chance to build public support for a full-scale impeachment inquiry into President Trump, pressing lawmakers to maintain a simple and somber message as she declared 'we are ready' to push forward with a politically divisive process. 'The polls have changed drastically about this,' Ms. Pelosi ... told her colleagues during a private conference call.... 'Our tone must be prayerful, respectful, solemn, worthy of the Constitution.'... Party leaders sent the rank and file home on Friday with instructions and talking points cards aimed at emphasizing the gravity of the moment. They contained two central messages for lawmakers to deliver to constituents: Mr. Trump abused his office, and Democrats would follow the facts." ~~~

~~~ Stolberg refers to this "60 Minutes" segment in which Scott Pelley lays out the impeachment story in very simple, straightforward terms and interviews Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff & House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. It's worth watching the entire interview. A bit of it is newsworthy -- Schiff discusses subpoenaing Giuliani -- but it's also worth watching the brief McCarthy interview; the guy is dumb as a rock. Video & a transcript at the link. Update: Andrea Mitchell characterizes the McCarthy interview as "Kevin McCarthy getting tripped up on television." ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "One letter from the whistleblower's lawyer first obtained by CBS News' '60 Minutes' outlined concerns that the whistleblower may be identified. The lawyer specifically cites President Trump's demand to know who gave the whistleblower the information and states that a $50,000 bounty has been issued for anyone with information relating to his client's identity." Mrs. McC: Gee, I know the whistleblower's name. I could collect $50K! But I won't. I hope none of the dozens of people who do know his name is hard up for cash. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$, through a series of tweets by others makes a critical point: "Had the whisteblower illegally brought the information to the [New York Times] directly, they would consider protecting his or her identity sacrosanct, but since legal channels were followed they're willing to at least risk identifying the individual[.]... It seems like this is a problem that really should be thought through." Lemieux is right. The Whistleblower Protection Act probably should be updated to make it a crime to identify a whistleblower who wishes to remain anonymous or to facilitate others to ID him or her. This would apply to news outlets as well as individuals or other entities -- like those who might make bids for the $50K bounty.

Bart Jansen & Christal Hayes of USA Today: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she wants to move 'expeditiously' on the impeachment inquiry into whether ... Donald Trump abused his power by pushing Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.... The plan for now, according to lawmakers, is to prioritize the Ukraine investigation, which is being led by the House Intelligence Committee, while other panels wrap up their probes and send their best cases to the House Judiciary Committee. Then lawmakers will decide whether to bring forward articles of impeachment, which would require a full House vote. If it passes, Trump would be impeached.... Despite Congress going on a two-week recess, things are moving rapidly. The chairmen of the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Reform committees gave [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo until Oct. 4 to hand over documents about Trump's July phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky. The chairmen ... also plan depositions for five State Department officials over the break[.]... Along with the depositions, which will be taken in private, the House Intelligence Committee also scheduled a hearing on Oct. 4 with Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community, who received the whistleblower's complaint ... and deemed it credible and urgent. The hearing will also take place behind closed doors." ~~~

~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post on how Nancy Pelosi is turning to Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff to run the preliminary -- and probably definitive -- "fact-gathering" phase of the impeachment inquiry instead of to the Judiciary Committee, which would normally head such an inquiry. Mrs. McC: There's a piece on how Republicans were so upset with Schiff's opening statement in the Maguire hearing. I had heard Schiff's statement in real time & found nothing whatsoever wrong with it, so I listened again. Trump & his allies are really grasping at straws to demand Schiff's resignation because they didn't like the way he characterized Trump's call to Zelensky. It was accurate. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Felicia Sonmez & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff said Sunday that his panel has reached an agreement to secure testimony from the anonymous whistleblower whose detailed complaint launched an impeachment investigation into President Trump.... In an appearance on ABC News's 'This Week,' Schiff (D-Calif.) ... said he expected the Intelligence Committee to hear from the whistleblower 'very soon' pending a security clearance from acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire..., noting that Maguire said in a hearing Thursday that he would allow the whistleblower to testify privately without constraints. One of the whistleblower's attorneys, Mark Zaid, said in a statement that bipartisan negotiations in both chambers are ongoing 'and we understand all agree that protecting whistleblower's identity is paramount.' He added that no date or time for the testimony has been set." The USA Today story is here.

Doina Chiacu & David Morgan of Reuters: "Congress is determined to get access to Donald Trump's calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's chairman [Adam Schiff] said on Sunday ... on NBC's 'Meet the Press'..., citing concerns that the Republican president may have jeopardized national security.... Trump, in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday evening, said he wanted to 'meet' the whistleblower, who he called 'my accuser,' as well as 'the person who illegally gave this information' to the whistleblower. 'Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!' wrote Trump, who added without providing evidence, 'I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.' The CBS program '60 Minutes' reported that the whistleblower is under federal protection after receiving threats." ~~~

~~~ Zachary Basu of Axios reports the full text of Trump's attacks on the whistleblower, his supposed "source" & Adam Schiff:

Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called 'Whistleblower,' represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way. Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress. His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason. In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the 'Whistleblower.' Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences! -- Donald Trump, in a series of tweets, Sunday night

~~~ BUT Trump Didn't Stop There. Matt Stieb of New York: "Gearing up for what promises to be a manic week of self-victimizing and lashing out at political opponents, the president previewed his state of mind on Twitter with a whirlwind Sunday even by his new standards. (Since the beginning of his presidency, Trump's tweeting has increased by 43 percent.) On Sunday, Trump sent off 46 messages on the platform, including retweets. Perhaps the most notable moment came when Trump tweeted a quote from Fox News contributor and megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress:

....If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.' Pastor Robert Jeffress,@FoxNews -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Sunday night ~~~

     ~~~ Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) on Sunday criticized President Trump for quoting a pastor saying impeachment could trigger a 'Civil War-like fracture' in the country.... 'I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant,' [Kinzinger tweeted.]"

Kylie Atwood & Evan Perez of CNN: "Former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker plans to appear at his deposition next Thursday in front of three congressional committees, according to a source familiar with his plans. The source would not say if the White House is seeking to use executive privilege to constrict Volker in terms of what he can say or provide. Volker's appearance before the Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs committees was announced just hours before the news broke Friday evening that he had resigned." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) said Sunday the government 'should be protecting' the whistleblower behind a complaint alleging President Trump pressured Ukraine's president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.... 'Having laws in place to ensure that folks throughout the government are able to get to the right committees information they think may be wrongdoing is important. There are troubling issues within the whistleblower report but they are allegations and I think that's why we should explore these allegations through hearings,' he added." Mrs. McC: Hurd, a former CIA officer, is retiring from the House. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

I don't want to be glib about this matter, but last year, retired former Sen. Judd Gregg wrote a piece in The Hill magazine saying the 3 ways ... to impeach one's self. And the 3rd way was to hire Rudy Giuliani. -- Former Trump advisor Tom Bossert on "This Week" today ~~~

~~~ Chris Francescani of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's first Homeland Security and counterterrorism advisor, who resigned after a year in the office, said on 'This Week With George Stephanopoulos' on Sunday that he is 'deeply disturbed' and 'frustrated' by the 'entire mess' that began in July with Trump's phone call with a young Ukrainian president.... Former Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert, now an ABC News contributor..., described the allegations against Trump as extremely serious. '... it is a bad day and a bad week for this president and this country -- if he is asking for political dirt on an opponent. But it looks to me that the other matter, that's far from proven, was whether he was doing anything to abuse his power and withhold aid, in order to solicit such a thing,' Bossert said.... Bossert was sharply critical of Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was also a guest on the show." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump was repeatedly warned by his own staff that the Ukraine conspiracy theory that he and his lawyer were pursuing was 'completely debunked' long before the president pressed Ukraine this summer to investigate his Democratic rivals, a former top adviser said on Sunday. Thomas P. Bossert, who served as Mr. Trump's first homeland security adviser, said he told the president there was no basis to the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, intervened in the 2016 election and did so on behalf of the Democrats.... Mr. Bossert's comments, on the ABC program 'This Week' and in a subsequent telephone interview, underscored the danger to the president as the House moves ahead with an inquiry into whether he abused his power for political gain. Other former aides to Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he refused to accept reassurances about Ukraine no matter how many times it was explained to him, instead subscribing to an unsubstantiated narrative that has now brought him to the brink of impeachment." This is a revision of a story linked earlier Sunday night. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So part of Trump's ask of Zelensky was to cook up a story that Trump himself knew his own government repeatedly told him had been "completely debunked." ~~~

     ~~~ So Then. Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Rudy Giuliani ... defended himself Sunday on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos' from accusations lodged by a former White House official that he has trafficked unfounded theories about foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election.... Giuliani ... [told] Stephanopoulos, 'Tom Bossert doesn't know what he's talking about ... I'm not peddling anything.' [Giuliani] also sought to defend his role in pressing Ukrainians to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.... 'This is not about getting Joe Biden in trouble,' Giuliani said. 'This is about proving that Donald Trump was framed by the Democrats.'... Giuliani also sought to undermine a whistleblower complaint.... 'The whistleblower says, "I don't have any direct knowledge, I just heard things,"' Giuliani said. 'I'm not saying [the whistleblower] was false, I'm saying he could have heard it wrong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rishika Dugyala of Politico has a more colorful recounting of Giuliani's "This Week" appearance: "On Sunday -- armed with document after document that he held up to the camera -- ... Donald Trump's personal attorney doubled down on his corruption charges against former Vice President Joe Biden and the connection between the Democratic Party and Ukraine. He also cast doubt on whether he would testify before a House panel.... Giuliani started his attacks on the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. He denied ever courting the theory that Ukrainians hacked the Democratic National Committee and then framed the Russian government. Pivoting, he said there was still 'a load of evidence that Ukrainians created false information for the Obama White House. He also alleged 'the collusion that they claim happened in Russia happened in the Ukraine with Hillary Clinton.'... If Trump hadn't asked Ukraine to investigate Biden in his July 25 phone call, Giuliani said Sunday, 'He would have violated the Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution.'... Throughout the interview, Giuliani and host George Stephanopoulos had fiery back-and-forths, disagreeing about media partisanship and the factual accuracy of some of Giuliani's claims." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So the new "strategy" is to claim that Trump had a Constitutional duty to send his personal lawyer around the world ginning up dirt on his political opponent? That should work.

Really, Joe? Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s presidential campaign contacted top television anchors and networks on Sunday to 'demand' that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, be kept off the air because of what they called his misleading comments about the Biden family and Ukraine. 'We are writing today with grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump,' a pair of top Biden campaign advisers, Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield, wrote in the letter. 'Giving Rudy Giuliani valuable time on your air to push these lies in the first place is a disservice to your audience and a disservice to journalism,' the advisers wrote. The note, which was obtained by The New York Times, was sent to executives and top political anchors at ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC, including star interviewers like Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd and Chris Wallace.... On Sunday, Mr. Giuliani made freewheeling appearances on 'Face the Nation' on CBS and 'This Week' on ABC to discuss the impeachment inquiry. Producers at both shows also requested interviews with Mr. Biden. The Biden campaign declined the invitation and instead offered its national co-chairman, Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, an option that the producers rejected...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Daily Beast report, by Maxwell Tani & Sam Stein is here. They apparently broke the story.

Jacob Knutson of Axios: "White House senior adviser Stephen Miller claimed on 'Fox News Sunday' that the whistleblower who filed a complaint about President Trump's interactions with Ukraine is a 'deep state operative' who does not deserve to be honored for forwarding a 'partisan hit job.'... Miller has no evidence of who the whistleblower is. He also cited the intelligence community inspector general's finding that the whistleblower displayed 'arguable political bias,' but dismissed the IG's assessment that the complaint was 'credible' -- which has also been backed up by acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "White House policy advisor Stephen Miller sparred with Fox News's Chris Wallace on Sunday over a whistleblower complaint against President Trump that has led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to announce a formal impeachment inquiry last week, saying Trump was the 'real whistleblower.' Miller blasted the complaint, which largely aligns with a White House summary of a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as a 'little Nancy Drew novel' that 'drips with condemnation, condescension and contempt for the president.... Wallace ... repeatedly pressed Miller on why the president had enlisted his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to get information on former Vice President Joe Biden's son's dealings in Ukraine. 'The president has got the State Department, he's got the CIA, he's got the Pentagon he's got a number of other agencies, why did he use three private lawyers to get information on Biden?' Wallace asked. Miller demurred on that question as well as Wallace's questions on why the White House delayed military aid to Ukraine, citing political corruption, despite the Pentagon certifying steps the nation had taken to address corruption. Wallace eventually called Miller's answers an 'exercise in obfuscation,' while the White House official shot back, saying there was 'a tone of judgment' in Wallace's questions...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Cammarata of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday repeatedly dismissed the whistleblower's complaint against ... Donald Trump as 'all hearsay.' 'This seems to me like a political setup. It's all hearsay. You can't get a parking ticket conviction based on hearsay. The whistleblower didn't hear the phone call,' the South Carolina Republican said on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' adding he has 'zero problems' with the president's phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Graham pushed back against host Margaret Brennan's assertion the whistleblower complaint largely matches the White House summary of the call. The evidence laid out in the complaint, she added, is based on information gathered from numerous White House officials. 'This whole thing is a sham ... Who is this whistleblower? What bias do they have? Why did they pick this whistleblower to tell a hearsay story? The transcript does not match the complaint,' Graham said. "This thing stinks.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oops! Loquacious Lindsey is acknowledging that numerous officials -- "they" -- supported the whistleblower's complaint & "picked" him from among themselves to make the complaint. ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Graham's major talking point was the the accusations against Trump amount to 'hearsay.' He repeated the phrase 11 times, as though it were an incantation that, by magic, would cause the pile of evidence against Trump to disappear. But of course the evidence against Trump is not hearsay. All the basic facts of the plot have been confessed openly by the principles. The main charge is that Trump sent his personal lawyer to convince another country to investigate his political rival. Both the lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Trump have openly boasted about this for months. Trump has also admitted publicly that he ordered a halt to aid for Ukraine to increase leverage for his demand, and that he did so in order to force Ukraine to investigate 'corruption,' a word he helpfully translated as code for 'Biden.'... If the facts have been confirmed, they're definitely not hearsay. Graham just continued using the word 'hearsay,' even after [interviewer Margaret] Brennan had indisputably shown that the whistle-blower's account contained confirmed facts." (Here's Chait's earlier post on how Trump decoded "corruption.") ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Lindsey Graham served in the Air Force as a defense lawyer, as the chief prosecutor in Europe & as a judge advocate (JAG). He knows what hearsay is & he knows what evidence is. Everything he has said so far about the pending impeachment of Donald Trump is a lie, including "and" and "the." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Clutching at Paper Straws. Mrs. McCrabbie: Now I get why Lindsey is obsessed with the "hearsay" argument. Kevin Poulsen of the Daily Beast reports on a false story, first invented by the right-wing Federalist: "The article claimed 'the intelligence community secretly revised the formal whistleblower complaint form in August 2019 to eliminate the requirement of direct, first-hand knowledge of wrongdoing.'" As Poulson reports, the intelligence community's inspector general Michael Atkinson did change the form in August, but -- contra the Federalist claim -- the old form also allowed for hearsay reports. "A question on the [new] form explicitly anticipates tips based on secondhand information, and asks the whistleblower to check a box: 'I have direct and personal knowledge,' or, 'I heard about it from others.'... The major difference in the fields is that the old form includes three options instead of two, subdividing secondhand sources into outside source and 'other employees.'" Lindsey is no doubt hoping Atkinson's innocuous change to the form will discredit both Atkinson & the whistleblower, suggest they are in cahoots & maybe even invalidate the entire whistleblower complaint.

** Justin Baragona & Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "In a bombshell report Sunday morning, Fox News reported that two frequent guests on the right-leaning cable news channel were 'working off the books' to help ... Rudy Giuliani dig up dirt on ... Donald Trump's leading Democratic opponent -- and that the only person who knew about their involvement was the president himself.... 'Two high-profile Washington lawyers, Joe diGenova, who's been a fierce critic of the Democratic investigation, and his wife Victoria Toensing were working with Giuliani to get oppo research on Biden,' Wallace said at the top of his broadcast. Giuliani has denied working with any other attorneys in his quest for Ukrainian-provided information on the Biden family in recent appearances on Fox News, denials that the network's own reporting now call into question. 'No,' Giuliani told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, when asked if he had worked with other attorneys. 'I didn't work with anybody to try and get dirt on Joe Biden.'... This week, during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, diGenova blasted Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano as 'a fool' for assessing that Trump had committed a crime during his July 25 call with the Ukrainian president." ~~~

     ~~~ Web Is so Tangled, It's Hard to Follow. Josh Marshall of TPM: "... material that has been surfacing from The Hill's 'opinion' reporter John Solomon and then echoed by Giuliani seems to originate with [Dimtry Firtash,] one of Ukraine's richest and most powerful oligarchs who is a former business partner of Paul Manafort and had to flee Ukraine after the overthrow of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. He is in Austria, fighting extradition to the United States to face bribery charges.... As part of Firtash's effort to avoid extradition from Austria to the United States, he asked [the now-'fired prosecutor' Viktor] Shokin to swear out the affidavit in which Shokin accuses Biden of getting him fired to protect his son Hunter. (... There was no investigation of Hunter Biden or the company on whose board he sat at the time Shokin was fired.) So to review, former Manafort business partner Firtash asks Shokin to swear out an affidavit in which he accuses Biden. The affidavit quickly gets into the hands of Giuliani and Solomon. And who just recently went to work for Firtash's legal team? None other than diGenova and Toensing.... So the duo who we now learned has been working on behalf of the President with Rudy Giuliani to extort the Ukrainian government just signed on to represent the oligarch behind the affidavit in which the disgraced prosecutor says Joe Biden got him fired." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times Editors don't mention diGenova & Toensing, BUT they do say ... "President Trump's assaults on democracy are rarely solo endeavors. His schemes often entangle, by chance or by choice, an array of accomplices, enablers, observers and victims -- many of whom will need to be heard from as House members begin investigating the Ukraine scandal as part of the impeachment inquiry announced last week.... Among the many persons of interest in this investigation: whichever White House and State Department staff members who were listening in on Mr. Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky; those who subsequently received a readout of that call; and those involved in the effort to 'lock down' the record of it. The lines of inquiry quickly spiral. But here are a few notable figures -- in addition, of course, to the whistle-blower himself -- who could prove particularly useful to House investigators. Rudy Giuliani..., Bill Barr..., Mick Mulvaney..., Mike Pompeo..., Kurt Volker..., Gordon Sondland..., Mike Pence..., John Bolton..., Michael Atkinson.... Lawmakers will also need to hear from whoever was charged with moving the transcript of Mr. Trump's July 25 call from the usual computer system to the special server, maintained by the National Security Council, reserved for 'classified information of an especially sensitive nature.'... Then there are the 'multiple U.S. government officials' whom the whistle-blower cites as his sources -- the ones whom Mr. Trump has compared to spies and has implied deserve to be executed for treason."

Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "A former Ukrainian prosecutor general reportedly told ... Rudy Giuliani that he saw no evidence of wrongdoing by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son as Trump alleged, according to the Los Angeles Times. Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine's former top law enforcement who was fired last month, told the LA Times in an interview published Sunday that he told Giuliani that authorities with the United States should launch their own investigation if they have evidence of potential misconduct by the Bidens, but to not use Ukraine to seek political vengeance that could affect the 2020 U.S. election. 'I told him I could not start an investigation just for the interests of an American official,' Lutsenko, a politician aligned with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, told the LA Times.... Lutsenko also told The Washington Post on Thursday that the former U.S. vice president's son did not break any Ukrainian laws while serving on Burisma's board.... Lutsenko's statements to the LA Times should be taken with caution considering the whistleblower's complaint says he was a source for Giuliani and Trump on many unsubstantiated claims about Ukrainian corruption investigations, including the ones related to the Bidens.... Lutsenko was also involved in the U.S. State Department removing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in May, which happened as Giuliani increased pressure on the new Zelensky administration to get involved in U.S. politics." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: See also Steve Coll's commentary on Lutsenko, linked above.

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "The Post story catches the president explicitly telling the hostile power that attacked his political rival and interfered with the cornerstone of American democracy that is was all totally fine with him. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to wonder what that means for 2020." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jennifer De Pinto, et al., of CBS News: "More than half of Americans [55%] -- and an overwhelming number of Democrats [87%] -- say they approve of the fact that Congress has opened an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. But as the inquiry begins, there is no national consensus on how to assess the president's actions. Partisans have immediately and predictably split: most Democrats call the president's handling of matters with Ukraine illegal, and deserving of impeachment. Most Republicans call his actions proper — or, even if improper, then still legal -- and feel they're an example of things that past presidents typically did, too." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine exploded into public view this month, with the revelation that Trump pressured the country's new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to work with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and information to discredit Mueller's probe.... But the former New York mayor's involvement in Ukraine and other former Soviet bloc countries has been more extensive and even more sketchy than these disclosures indicate." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Friedman covers many of Giuliani's previous ventures & adventures in the old USSR. No wonder he saw nothing wrong with taking a paying gig with at a Kremlin-backed "conference" just as his part in Trump's impeachment scandal hit front pages across the U.S. "Colluding with Russia the entire former Soviet bloc" is what Rudy does for a living.

Presidential Race 2020 ~~~

~~~ Not that most of the preceding stories aren't about the presidential race.

"Inequality Tax." Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is unveiling a plan on Monday that would dramatically increase taxes on corporations that pay their CEOs far more than their workers, adding to the growing suite of policy proposals to expand taxes in the Democratic presidential race. Under Sanders's plan, the government would increase a firm's corporate tax rate if its highest-paid employee earns more than 50 times that of its average worker -- an attempt to encourage companies to distribute their profits more equally. The plan would only apply to companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue." The CNN story is here. Mrs. McC: Excellent idea.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong. Julia Hollingsworth of CNN: "Hong Kong police fired blue dye from a water cannon, rounds of tear gas and a live warning shot as protesters lit fires and threw petrol bombs and bricks on Sunday in clashes ahead of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Despite organizers not requesting permission from authorities, thousands of protesters marched in the 17th consecutive weekend of unrest. Hong Kong's Hospital Authority said 48 people were admitted for treatment, including one person in critical condition. More than 150 people were arrested over the weekend, police said in a news conference Monday. On Friday, police announced that a total of 1,578 people had been arrested over the course of the protests." ~~~

~~~ Greg Torode, et al., of Reuters: "Last month, Beijing moved thousands of troops across the border into [Hong Kong].... The state news agency Xinhua described the operation as a routine 'rotation' of the low-key force China has kept in Hong Kong since the city's handover from Britain in 1997.... It was a plausible report: China has maintained a steady level of force in the territory for years, regularly swapping troops in and out.... A month on, Asian and Western envoys in Hong Kong say they are certain the late-August deployment was not a rotation at all, but a reinforcement. Seven envoys who spoke to Reuters said they didn't detect any significant number of existing forces in Hong Kong returning to the mainland in the days before or after the announcement. Three of the envoys said the contingent of Chinese military personnel in Hong Kong had more than doubled in size since the protests began."

Saudi Arabia. AP: "Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a television interview that he takes 'full responsibility' for the grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but denied allegations that he ordered it. 'This was a heinous crime,' Prince Mohammed, 34, told '60 Minutes' in an interview that aired Sunday. 'But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.' Asked if he ordered the murder of Khashoggi, who had criticized him in columns for The Washington Post, Prince Mohammed replied: 'Absolutely not.' The slaying was 'a mistake,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I hesitated to even link this story, as it's such B.S., but it is a good example of spin. Maybe Trump should follow MBS's lead: "I take full responsibility for everybody's completely misinterpreting every word I've said, but I'm as innocent as the Baby Jesus."