The Commentariat -- April 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Li'l Randy Caves. Elana Schor of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) flipped from 'no' to 'yes' on Mike Pompeo's nomination to be secretary of state Monday, paving an unexpectedly easy path for the CIA director to win confirmation from the full Senate as soon as this week. Paul's surprising turnabout on Pompeo came after multiple conversations with ... Donald Trump, the Kentucky Republican said, as well as getting what he described as 'assurances' that the hawkish nominee sees the war in Iraq as 'a mistake' and wants to wind down the U.S. presence in Afghanistan."

Jenna Moon & Jesse McLean of the Toronto Star: "At least three people have been killed and many more injured after a van ran down pedestrians along Yonge St. [a major street] between Finch and Sheppard Aves. on Monday afternoon. Sunnybrook hospital says it has received eight patients from the scene.... Police say both the van and the driver are in custody but don't know the motive or cause of the crash." Mrs. McC: At least one witness/videographer caught the capture of the suspect, & CTV has played the video. In the video, the suspect is seen pointing a gun at the police officer moments before the officer talked him into dropping the gun & dropping to the sidewalk. Eyewitnesses say the van driver was deliberately plowing down pedestrians. Reporters are now saying that 9 pedestrians were killed & 16 were injured.

Well, Of Course. Victoria Guida of Politico: "The Treasury Department Monday eased sanctions on Russian aluminum producer Rusal and said it would consider lifting them altogether if the company severs ties with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. Rusal was sanctioned earlier this month by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control because of Deripaska's stake in the company. The Russian billionaire is alleged to have conducted a range of illegal activities, including money laundering, extortion and ordering the murder of a businessman, according to Treasury. He is also reportedly part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election."

Rafael Bernal of the Hill: "Mexico's top diplomat on Monday rebuffed President Trump's suggestion to make immigration enforcement a precondition for a trade deal. 'Mexico decides its migratory policy in a sovereign way, and migratory cooperation with the United States happens because it's in Mexico's interest,' tweeted Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Videgaray. Videgaray's tweet came an hour after Trump used the platform to threaten tying Mexico's record on immigration to the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations. 'Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement,' tweeted Trump." (See also news of Mexico's pending trade deal with the E.U., linked below.)

Michael Sykes of Axios: "Senator Joe Manchin [D-W.Va.] announced via Twitter on Monday that he would vote to confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State."

Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "John Bolton..., Donald Trump's new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory, an NBC News review found. The group's authors also appeared on Russian media, including Sputnik and RT News, criticizing mainstream European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron. From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based advocacy group that warns of a looming 'jihadist takeover' of Europe leading to a 'Great White Death.'"

James Shaw, Jr., who -- unarmed himself -- wrestled an assault weapon from a mass-murderer.We Have Met the Real Donald Trump. And He Is Black. (Also, young & good-looking.) As Akhilleus writes in today's Comments, "Isn't this what Trump himself boasted, with great pomp and bravado that he would have done (brave, brave Sir Donald) had he been in Stoneman Douglas High School when a shooter opened fire? He told a phalanx of Confederate governors that he, brave Sir Donald, would have run, unarmed up to the gunman and valiantly disarmed him, because...well, I guess it sounded good." Real Akhilleus' entire commentary on this as he explores how things likely would have gone had black been white & white black. ...

... Alan Blinder & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "During a sudden break in the firing, [James] Shaw[, Jr.,] sprinted through [a] door [near a restroom] as fast as he could, slamming into the gunman and knocking him to the ground. He grabbed the rifle and tossed it over the restaurant counter.... Mr. Shaw said Sunday that he eventually learned that the pause in the gunman's firing came when he was trying to reload the rifle. It was a brief enough break, Mr. Shaw said, for him to make a move. ...

... Natalie Alund & Adam Tamburin of the Tennessean: "Police on Monday said they planned to expand the search for Travis Reinking, 29, the suspect in a deadly shooting at an Antioch Waffle House shooting after investigators said a Tennessee resident found evidence in a different part of the city." Mrs. McC: I heard on TV that Reinking had stolen a BMW using some kind of automatic key. Police recovered the vehicle via GPS tracking, but Reinking is still at large. ...

     ... Update: "Metro police announced Monday afternoon that Travis Reinking, the suspect in a shooting that killed four people at an Antioch Waffle House, had been arrested after a 34-hour manhunt. Shortly after 1 p.m. [CT], police announced Reinking had been arrested in a 'wooded area' near Old Hickory Boulevard and Hobson Pike -- less than two miles from the Waffle House where the shooting took place. Police photos from the scene showed Reinking, 29, being loaded into a car wearing a torn maroon T-shirt with scratches on his exposed shoulders." Thanks to Marvin S. for the heads-up. ...

... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "The suspected gunman on the run after riddling a Tennessee Waffle House with bullets dubbed himself a 'sovereign citizen,' before being arrested in July 2017 outside the White House. Travis Reinking, 29, used that term -- which the FBI has also used to describe a group of anti-government extremists -- during a clash last year with the Secret Service, according to a police report obtained by USA Today. Reinking told agents he needed to see President Trump and defined himself as sovereign citizen who had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an arrest report by the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. He was arrested on an unlawful entry charge after refusing to leave the area."

Look Away, Look Away. Leada Gore of AL.com: "Monday, April 23 is Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama, meaning state offices are closed. Only two states - Alabama and Mississippi - make the day with an official state holiday. Georgia stopped officially recognizing Confederate Memorial Day in 2015, replacing it with the generically named 'State Holiday.' Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April. Florida and South Carolina celebrate the day but not as a state holiday. Alabama has three Confederate-related holidays: Robert E. Lee's birthday on third Monday in January (celebrated along with birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King); Confederate Memorial Day on fourth Monday in April; and birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on first Monday in June."

*****

Trump Is in Way over His Head. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "As negotiations over a summit meeting with the ruler of North Korea accelerate, President Trump on Sunday disputed any suggestion that he had made too many concessions at the outset of an unpredictable and potentially volatile diplomatic exercise. From his Florida estate, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to criticize Chuck Todd, the host of 'Meet the Press,' who had questioned on his program whether the president had gotten anything in return for the 'huge gift' he had given the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, by agreeing to meet with him.... 'Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Wow, we haven't given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!' North Korea has not in fact agreed to denuclearization. It has told the South Koreans that it is willing to discuss the issue, but Mr. Kim has made no such statement to his own people, as he did with his declaration that his country did not need to conduct further nuclear testing."

John Oliver and the Catheter Cowboy explain the Iran nuclear deal to the guy who is in way over his head on everything. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead:

** Diana Bass, in an illuminating New York Times op-ed, on Donald Trump's understanding of gratitude: for him, it's transactional. Bass provides another, more profound, explanation for Jim Comey's observation that Trump "has an emptiness inside of him, and a hunger for affirmation, that I've never seen in an adult. He lacks external reference points. Instead of making hard decisions by calling upon a religious tradition, or logic, or tradition or history, it's all, 'What will fill this hole?'"

Emily Stewart of Vox: "Kellyanne Conway does not want to talk about her husband George Conway's habit of subtweeting ... Donald Trump. She accused CNN's Dana Bash of a sexist line of questioning when the journalist asked about the matter on State of the Union on Sunday, saying it was meant to 'harass and embarrass' her. George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer who was under consideration for two Trump administration posts last year, has raised eyebrows with his habit of tweeting and retweeting tweets that are critical of the president.... Bash pointed out that Trump repeatedly targeted former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, and in a call with McCabe told him to 'ask his wife how it feels to be a loser.' 'The president has excellent instincts,' Conway said of Trump's targeting of Jill McCabe. During the 2016 campaign, Trump infamously attacked Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) wife, Heidi Cruz, threatening to 'spill the beans' on her and retweeting an unflattering photo of her that he still has not taken down. He tweeted and deleted an item attacking Jeb Bush's wife because she is Mexican and, of course, spent much of the 2016 presidential campaign criticizing Hillary Clinton for her husband’s misdeeds." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A fun read. Kellyanne went on quite a rant, & her husband's tweets & retweets are choice. Here's the video. The exchange begins at about 9:50 min. in:

** Portrait of James Comey. Elizabeth Drew in the New Republic: "I see Comey as someone who dedicated his life to public service and trying to do the right thing, but who played the angles a bit too much. For example, he couldn't just recommend that Clinton not be prosecuted over her email server, but had to publicly upbraid her as well, which was most unusual." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. ...

     ... ** Mrs. McCrabbie: The most jawdropping part of Drew's essay is not her analysis but a new fact -- or at least new to me -- that she reveals. If it's true, then Jim Comey not only did more than the Russians did to throw the election to Trump, he did it based on a lie or a stunning incidence of "misremembering": Drew: "By my count, Comey has offered at least three different explanations of why he announced eleven days before the election that he was reopening the case of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.... At the time when Comey sent the letter to Capitol Hill..., his allies spread the point that Comey had told the House Republicans that he'd let them know if anything new came up. But according to Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department when the Democrats were in power..., in response to a question by a congressman of what he would do if he came across any new information, Comey replied, 'I'd take a look at it.'" Mrs. McC: There is certainly a record of Comey's testimony, whether it was made in a classified hearing or not. The public has a right to know what he said. So does Andy McCabe, who must be looking right now for evidence that Comey's memory is, at best, selective. ...

While You Weren't Watching. Ruth Graham in Politico Magazine on Trump's capture of Christian broadcasting. "This audience recognized [Trump] as a kindred spirit in everything but religion. His hair-sprayed reality-TV persona -- to say nothing of the bluster and the heroic monologues -- aren't that far from the preaching style that has prospered on cable evangelism."

Sean Hannity, Real Estate Baron. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: Sean Hannity has "a real estate portfolio of remarkable scale that has not previously been reported. The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them. Dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013, after banks foreclosed on their previous owners for defaulting on mortgages. Before and after then, Hannity sharply criticised Barack Obama for the US foreclosure rate. In January 2016, Hannity said there were 'millions more Americans suffering under this president' partly because of foreclosures. Hannity, 56, also amassed part of his property collection with support from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development (Hud), a fact he did not disclose when praising Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, on his television show last year.... Hannity praised privatisation plans pushed by Trump and Carson."

Lesley Stahl of NBC News interviews Aleksandr Kogan & Sandy Parakilas for "60 Minutes" about the Cambridge Analytica purchase & use of your Facebook profile. She doesn't interview Mark Zuckerberg because he said no. Video & transcript. If you were all persuaded by Zuck's, um, profound contrition voiced during his Congressional testimony, you might be less so after listening to Stahl's interviews.

Adios, Trumpado. Jackie Wattles of CNN: "Mexico and the European Union have reached a trade deal that virtually eliminates tariffs. The wide-reaching deal will simplify the customs process and eliminate tariffs for 'practically all' goods traded between EU-member nations and Mexico, according to an announcement posted Saturday by the European Commission. Mexico and the EU said last year they would accelerate their talks to update a trade agreement signed in 2000 as the United States threatened to slap tariffs on Mexican imports and withdraw from NAFTA. Officials appeared to take a jab at US President Donald Trump's policies in statements praising the Mexico-EU deal as a defense of 'open' and 'rules-based' trade. 'Mexico and the EU worked together and reached a mutually beneficialoutcome,' said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. 'We did it as partners who are willing to discuss, to defend their interests while at the same time being willing to compromise to meet each other's expectations.' The deal marks a move by Mexico to pivot away from its reliance on trade with the United States."

Senate Race. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, [retiring Sen. Bob] Corker [R-Tenn.] praised [the likely Democratic Senate nominee, Phil] Bredesen, a two-term governor whose tenure overlapped with Corker's first term, as 'a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person.' Hours later, President Trump called Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) to reiterate his support for her in the race, and McConnell confronted Corker to say that his remarks had been unhelpful. But on Sunday, Corker had more to say about the heavy hand of Senate Republicans [-- who had criticized his favorable remarks about Bredesen --] than he had to say about Blackburn. 'I'm supporting the nominee, everyone knows that,' he said on ABC. 'I've sent the maximum check, plan to vote for them.'"

A Very Special President*. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court's final oral argument of the term will be one of its most important and potentially far-reaching, an examination of the president's authority to protect the country by banning some foreigners who seek entry. But, similar to a debate that has consumed Washington for the past 15 months, a major issue for the court is separating 'the president' from 'this president.'... If [Trump]' comments and tweets were not a factor, many legal experts said the court would likely extend the deference to the political branches it has shown in the past when considering issues of immigration and national security.... The court will also consider whether the judiciary even has authority to 'look behind' the face of an immigration proclamation to examine whether it was drawn with improper motives."

Isaac Chotiner of Slate interviews Priya Satia, author of Empire of Guns. Satia explains the historical reasons for the U.S.'s gun culture. What Satia doesn't explain, at least in the interview, is how gun ownership moved from being a public deterrence of tyranny to being a private right to own an arsenel. Mrs. McC: But it's probably safe to say that the current state of U.S. gun "rights" is as attributable to fear of black people as it was in the colonial, slave-trading days Satia recounts.

Christopher Mele & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "A gunman wearing only a jacket and carrying an assault-style rifle opened fire at a Waffle House in Nashville early on Sunday, killing four people and leaving the police searching for him and a motive, officials said.... The police said murder warrants were being drafted for the suspect, Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, Ill., who remained at large.... James Shaw Jr., 29, was in the restaurant when he heard the shots and hid behind a door. When Mr. Shaw heard the shooting stop and saw Mr. Reinking look down at his rifle, he rushed the gunman, wrestled the weapon away and threw it over the counter.... The gunman, who was naked but for a green jacket, then fled and shed the jacket as he reached a corner not far from the Waffle House.... [Reinking] was known to the authorities for previous encounters, including one at the White House grounds in July, officials said.... [After the incident at the White House, where Reinking crossed a barrier & refused to leave,] the four guns he owned -- including the AR-15 he brought to the Waffle House on Sunday -- were given to his father by the authorities for safekeeping and his father apparently gave them back to his son, officials said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The elder Reinking should be charged with something. Donald Trump has posted quite a few tweets today but nothing about hero James Shaw who ended the massacre in Nashville. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that Shaw is black & the mass murderer is white. Nah.

The Mysterious Suicide of a Diplomat. Philip Shenon of the Guardian: The widow of U.S. diplomat Charles Thomas & others are pleading with the Trump administration to release documents that may shed light on Thomas' death four decades ago. Thomas had attempted to re-open the investigation into Lee Harvey Oswald after he found evidence that "that showed ... Oswald -- who visited Mexico City in September 1963, weeks before killing [President] Kennedy -- had been in contact there with Cuban diplomats and spies who wanted JFK dead and might have offered help and encouragement.... For historians, Oswald's trip to Mexico has never been adequately explained. Available records shows that the CIA and FBI knew much more about it -- and the threat Oswald posed -- than they ever shared with the Warren Commission. The agencies appear to have withheld evidence out of fear they might be blamed for bungling intelligence that could have saved Kennedy's life."

The Commentariat -- April 22, 2018

strong>Umair Irfan & Eliza Barclay of Vox: "Earth Day turns 48 this Sunday, April 22.... When Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisc.) founded Earth Day in 1970, his hope was to make the environment a political issue in an era where US rivers caught on fire and thick smog choked cities. In many ways, it worked. Since then, major environmental laws have helped clean up much of the vivid toxic detritus in the soil, air, and water in the US. But our challenges today are no less daunting. The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the loss of wilderness and species, and the acidification and pollution of the oceans have all become more acute -- and more destabilizing.... Here are seven of the most troubling, intriguing, and encouraging things we learned about the Earth since the last Earth Day." ...

... MEANWHILE. John Heritage in a USA Today op-ed: "Trump and his minions are rolling back hard-fought environmental regulations as fast as they can. And while& Arctic and Antarctic ice melts and seas rise, Trump walks out of the most significant world conference yet to get a handle on global warming. Meanwhile, the Trump rollback targets federally-protected lands, making way for minerals and the already failing 'King Coal.' The lands are being opened even though safer energy sources are coming online. And lobbyists have invaded the Environmental Protection Agency, shoving dedicated environmental experts aside, supported by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (a man now deep in scandal)."

Donald, Full of Grace. Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "In the span of 15 hours, Trump alleged that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was 'established based on an illegal act,' threatened to countersue the Democratic Party, bashed a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times reporter and called one of his former aides a 'drunk/drugged up loser.' All of this overlapped with the Saturday funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush.... On Friday night, the president continued his broadsides against former FBI Director James Comey.... 'James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council?' Trump wrote, using the wrong spelling for special counsel. 'Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?'... 'James Comey's Memos are Classified, I did not Declassify them,' Trump tweeted on Saturday afternoon. 'They belong to our Government! Therefore, he broke the law! Additionally, he totally made up many of the things he said I said, and he is already a proven liar and leaker. Where are Memos on Clinton, Lynch & others?'" ...

     ... Restuccia has yet another explanation of the classification issue: "Comey authorized the release of four memos, none of which were deemed to contain classified material when they were made public. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Comey made redactions of classified information in one of the memos ahead of its release and the other three were not considered to be classified at the time. But the Journal said the FBI now considers information in another one of the memos to be classified, prompting an investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Award for Best Sentence in a News Report goes to Restuccia: "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not respond to an email seeking clarity on who specifically Trump is calling a 'drunk/drugged up loser.'"

Trump Sends Another Message to Cohen. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "As four former presidents and the current first lady traveled to the funeral of Barbara Bush in Texas, President Trump took in his usual Saturday round of golf and issued a morning barrage of disparaging (and misspelled) tweets. Shortly after the televised funeral for Mrs. Bush ended, the president indicated that he had also fielded a call from Rambo. 'Sylvester Stallone called me with the story of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. His trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!'... As the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible ties to Trump associates continues, Mr. Trump's mention of a presidential pardon for Mr. Johnson, who in 1908 became the first black heavyweight boxing champion, seemed to serve as a reminder that he wields the power to grant one." ...

... Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: Jack "Johnson..., the first black heavyweight champion, was convicted in 1913 under the Mann Act, federal legislation that made it illegal to cross state lines with a woman 'for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.' Jim Crow era prosecutors often used the legislation as a type of anti-miscegenation law.... Congressional leaders have sought a pardon for Johnson for years. A bill requesting a pardon from George W. Bush passed the House of Representatives in 2008 but died in the Senate."

Wherein David Remnick gets Jim Comey to finally admit things would be way better if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency:

     ... If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, a transcript of that part of the interview is here.

Peter Fritsch and Glenn R. Simpson of Fusion GPS, in a New York Times op-ed: "The most significant recent development involving the president may be that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has subpoenaed Trump Organization business records as part of his inquiry into Russian interference in the presidential election.... We pored over Donald Trump's business records for well over a year, at least those records you can get without a badge or a subpoena. We also hired a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, to look into Mr. Trump's possible ties to Russia. In that 2015-2016 investigation, sponsored first by a Republican client and then by Democrats, we found strong indications that companies affiliated with Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, might have been entangled in foreign corruption.... Indeed, from New York to Florida, Panama to Azerbaijan, we found that Trump projects have relied heavily on foreign cash — including from wealthy individuals from Russia and elsewhere with questionable, and even criminal, backgrounds." The authors cite numerous shady operators & money launderers who financed Trump-branded properties. ...

... "Forgetting Rudy." Andy Borowitz (satire): "The independent counsel, Robert Mueller, told reporters that, prior to news reports on Thursday, he had 'almost forgotten' to investigate the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.... Mueller was at a loss to explain why he had failed to investigate Giuliani earlier. 'I have no idea how it could have slipped my mind,' he said. 'His role in Trump's campaign was as fishy as all get-out.'"

Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast: During the overtime segment of "Real Time with Bill Maher," Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti threatened he would release the contents of a mystery "evidence disc" "if they tried to claim that my client was a liar...." "In the words of Late Night host Seth Meyers, 'So we are looking at the very real possibility that Donald Trump sent Stormy Daniels a dick pic.'"

Eric Talmadge of the AP: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has finally broken his silence on what he plans to bring to the table during his summits with the South Korean and U.S. presidents, and it doesn't have a whole lot to do with tossing out his hard-won nuclear arsenal. Instead, Kim appears to be maneuvering toward his own big 'get' -- the chance to sit down with ... Donald Trump on an essentially equal basis as the head of a nuclear-armed nation.... Kim laid out the new strategy at a meeting Friday of his ruling party's Central Committee that suspends underground nuclear tests and test-launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. He also said the country's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, already believed to be essentially inoperable, will be closed and 'dismantled.'... Trump immediately took to Twitter to praise the announcement as 'very good news for North Korea and the World.' Seoul and Beijing welcomed it. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hard-liner on North Korea, tried to keep his response positive, though he stressed the need for vigilance...." See also Patrick's commentary in yesterday's thread.

"World's Largest Pork Processor." Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, met personally last year with J. Steven Hart, the lobbyist whose wife had rented him a $50-a-night Capitol Hill condo, a disclosure that contradicts earlier statements that E.P.A. lobbying by Mr. Hart had not occurred. The meeting was set up on behalf of an executive associated with Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. Previously, Mr. Hart and his lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, had maintained that Mr. Hart never lobbied Mr. Pruitt in 2017, when Mr. Pruitt was living in a condo co-owned by Mr. Hart's wife, or in the time since then.... The Smithfield Foods disclosure was made the same day that Mr. Hart announced he was stepping down as chairman of Williams & Jensen -- instead of waiting until his planned November retirement -- citing the negative publicity that had been caused by the Capitol Hill condo rental to Mr. Pruitt. ...

... Pruitt Was Always Corrupt. Steve Eder & Hiroki Tabuchi of the New York Times: "An examination of Mr. Pruitt's political career in Oklahoma reveals that many of the pitfalls he has encountered in Washington have echoes in his past.... Mr. Pruitt's home in Oklahoma City when he was a state senator..., which had belonged to a lobbyist, was held by a shell company registered to Mr. Pruitt's business partner and financed by a bank an associate of his ran.... ... In 2005, the shell company -- Capitol House L.L.C. -- sold the property for $95,000 more than it had paid. While shell companies are legal, they often obscure the people who have an interest in them, and none of Mr. Pruitt's financial disclosure filings in Oklahoma mentioned the company or the proceeds -- a potential violation of the state's ethics rules." Both the holder of the shell company & the banker who arranged the mortgage -- who is "barred from working in the finance industry because of a banking violation" -- now have top jobs at the EPA. The partners bought the house at a $100K discount; SBC Oklahoma, the former homeowner's employer, picked up the difference. SBC had been lobbying state legislators, & Pruitt sided with the company on matters for which it had lobbied him." AND there's more.

Wait for the Punch Line. Jonathan Chait: "Deep in [a Politico] story [about the Trump administration], a former administration official explains that 'Chris Liddell is not a policy guy,' and that he is also 'not really a Washington guy.' There are some jobs where these limitations could be overcome easily -- Starbucks barista, circus clown, corporate executive (Lid[]dell's former job), or working in a location far away from Washington, like New Zealand (Li[d]dell's home country). Unfortunately, Li[d]dell now works in Washington, and his current position is deputy chief of staff for policy." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fact, I don't see that as a big problem. Trump doesn't give a rip about policy, so "deputy chief of staff for policy" is a non-job, a reserved seat in the clown car. Liddell probably piddles around at whatever interests him. I looked up Liddell's background, & he has one of the most impressive CVs in the administration -- nothing like "Trump's former caddy" (social media director Dan Scavino) or "Ivanka's former go-fer" (former communications chief Hope Hicks) -- qualifications for two of Trump's closest advisors.

Everything They Do Is Stupid, Regressive & Mean. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration says it plans to roll back a rule issued by President Barack Obama that prevents doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies from discriminating against transgender people. Advocates said the change could jeopardize the significant gains that transgender people have seen in access to medical care, including gender reassignment procedures -- treatments for which many insurers denied coverage in the past.... The Trump administration has been scaling back protections for transgender people on several fronts."

Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "Former first lady Barbara Bush was remembered by family and friends as a symbol of authenticity and grace during a private funeral Saturday in Houston, where more than 1,000 guests were in attendance, including four former presidents and three former first ladies, as well as the current first lady." ...

     ... Roxanne Roberts & Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post have more on the funeral. ...

     ... MoDo remembers Bar.

Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post reviews Chasing Hillary: "Amy Chozick, the lead New York Times reporter on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, believes that the news media's focus on Clinton's private e-mail server -- a story the Times broke and that Chozick would write about extensively -- was excessive. She even grew to resent it. Chozick also thinks that reporting on campaign chairman John Podesta's hacked emails turned journalists into 'puppets' of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and she struggles to explain why they did it anyway. She contends that sexism played a big role in Clinton's defeat but also encounters it first-hand among Clinton's campaign staff. And while she hammers the candidate for having no clear vision for why she sought the presidency, Chozick allows that competence, experience and policy were hardly selling points in 2016, when it 'turned out a lot of people just wanted to blow s[hit] up.'" Lozada does not make you want to rush out & buy the book.

Congressional Races

Utah Republicans Humiliate Mitt. Lee Davidson & Courtney Tanner of the St. Lake Tribune: "After 11 hours of political elbowing and shoving at the Utah Republican Convention -- held appropriately at a hockey arena -- delegates forced Mitt Romney into a primary election against state Rep. Mike Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race. In fact, Kennedy -- a doctor and lawyer -- finished in first place at the convention with 51 percent of the vote to Romney's 49 percent. The former GOP presidential nominee fell far short of the 60 percent needed to clinch the nomination outright.... Romney and Kennedy emerged as the only two survivors from 12 candidates after two rounds of balloting.... Freshman Rep. John Curtis suffered the same fate as Romney, pushed into a primary against former State Rep. Chris Herrod, an ultraconservative who made his reputation on a tough anti-illegal immigration stance. But Curtis, who has been in office just five months after winning last year's special election, at least won 59 percent of the vote, just missing the 60 percent threshold. Meanwhile, Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Stewart easily managed to eliminate their convention opponents and will proceed directly to the Nov. 6 general election. Mia Love did not draw a Republican challenger.

Matt Volz of the AP: "A Democratic candidate for Montana's U.S. House seat is using Sinclair Broadcast Group's own television stations to blast the company for forcing its reporters to read the conservative-leaning corporation's statements on air. John Heenan bought airtime starting Monday for an ad on Sinclair-owned stations KECI-TV in Missoula and KTVM-TV in Bozeman and Butte. In it, he calls Sinclair 'a corporation using its power to take advantage of journalists, our democracy and the people of Montana.'"

Steven Thrasher in a New York Times op-ed: "The police in this country have long been empowered to respond to white anxiety about the very presence of black people." Starbucks' anti-racial bias training won't fix that.

Beyond the Beltway

Death by Misdemeanor. Carol Miller & Monique Madan of the Miami Herald: "A Broward County [Florida] circuit judge delivered a blistering, arm-waving, face-palming, tongue-lashing to a frail, out-of-breath woman -- pushed into court in a wheelchair -- who was facing misdemeanor charges following a family feud. Three days later, the defendant died. Judge Merrillee Ehrlich has resigned, although it is unclear when that resignation was provided and when it becomes effective. News of the death of Sandra Faye Twiggs, 59, surfaced Friday. The courtroom rant last Sunday was so over the top that Broward's elected public defender, Howard Finkelstein, demanded that ... Ehrlich be banned from the criminal courthouse.... Twiggs suffered from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also called COPD. She ended up under arrest after squabbling with her 19-year-old daughter." Twiggs had no previous arrest record.

The Commentariat -- April 21, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "Former first lady Barbara Bush was remembered by family and friends as a symbol of authenticity and grace during a private funeral Saturday in Houston, where more than 1,000 guests were in attendance, including four former presidents and three former first ladies, as well as the current first lady."

"World's Largest Pork Processor." Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, met personally last year with J. Steven Hart, the lobbyist whose wife had rented him a $50-a-night Capitol Hill condo, a disclosure that contradicts earlier statements that E.P.A. lobbying by Mr. Hart had not occurred. The meeting was set up on behalf of an executive associated with Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. Previously, Mr. Hart and his lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, had maintained that Mr. Hart never lobbied Mr. Pruitt in 2017, when Mr. Pruitt was living in a condo co-owned by Mr. Hart's wife, or in the time since then.... The Smithfield Foods disclosure was made the same day that Mr. Hart announced he was stepping down as chairman of Williams & Jensen -- instead of waiting until his planned November retirement -- citing the negative publicity that had been caused by the Capitol Hill condo rental to Mr. Pruitt. ...

... Pruitt Was Always Corrupt. Steve Eder & Hiroki Tabuchi of the New York Times: "An examination of Mr. Pruitt's political career in Oklahoma reveals that many of the pitfalls he has encountered in Washington have echoes in his past.... Mr. Pruitt's home in Oklahoma City when he was a state senator..., which had belonged to a lobbyist, was held by a shell company registered to Mr. Pruitt's business partner and financed by a bank an associate of his ran.... In 2005, the shell company -- Capitol House L.L.C. -- sold the property for $95,000 more than it had paid. While shell companies are legal, they often obscure the people who have an interest in them, and none of Mr. Pruitt's financial disclosure filings in Oklahoma mentioned the company or the proceeds -- a potential violation of the state's ethics rules." Both the holder of the shell company & the banker who arranged the mortgage -- who is "barred from working in the finance industry because of a banking violation" -- now have top jobs at the EPA. The partners bought the house at a $100K discount; SBC Oklahoma, the former homeowner's employer, picked up the difference. SBC had been lobbying state legislators, & Pruitt sided with the company on matters for which it had lobbied him."

*****

The Trumpster has been tweeting this morning: "The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don't speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will 'flip.' They use.... ...non-existent 'sources' and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if.... ...it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!" ...

    ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Based on the NYT report (linked below), I assume the "drunk/drugged up loser" is Sam Nunberg, who used to work for Cohen & Roger Stone.

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Trump initially misspelled Haberman's last name, using two 'b', but later retweeted the thread with the correct spelling. Trump ... has spoken with Haberman on the record for multiple stories in the past...."

Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange. Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump's fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI's raid April 9 on the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen.... [One] person familiar with the exchange said Sessions did not intend to threaten the White House but rather wanted to convey the untenable position that Rosenstein's firing would put him in."

Thug-in-Chief. Murray Waas in Vox: "... Donald Trump sharply questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray during a White House meeting on January 22 about why two senior FBI officials -- Peter Strzok and Lisa Page -- were still in their jobs despite allegations made by allies of the president that they had been disloyal to him and had unfairly targeted him and his administration.... The president also pressed his attorney general and FBI director to work more aggressively to uncover derogatory information within the FBI's files to turn over to congressional Republicans working to discredit the two FBI officials.... The very next day, Trump met Sessions again, this time without Wray present, and even more aggressively advocated that Strzok and Page be fired, the sources said. Trump's efforts to discredit Strzok and Page came after Trump was advised last summer by his then-criminal defense attorney John Dowd that Page was a likely witness against him in ... Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice, according to two senior administration officials." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Bad news, Donaldo. Now both Sessions & Wray could wind up as witnesses against you, too.

Kevin Brueninger of CNBC: "Memos leaked by former FBI Director James Comey contain information that is now considered classified, prompting the Justice Department's watchdog to review the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.... At least two of the memos Comey gave to a friend contained classified information, the Journal reported. Comey reportedly redacted portions of one of those two memos himself before sending them to his friend.... A person familiar with the matter told the newspaper that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is now spearheading an investigation into the classification of the documents. Comey has said he considers the documents to be personal documents. But in a Jan. 7, 2017 email containing the first memo he wrote, Comey said he was 'not sure of the proper classification here so have chosen SECRET.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times, in a story about how leaking the Comey memos seems to have backfired on House GOP leaders, has a fairly good explanation of the classification issue: "Mr. Comey gave copies of at least two of his memos to Daniel C. Richman, a longtime associate outside the F.B.I. Some of the memos were later deemed to contain classified information. In one case, Mr. Comey had personally redacted such information before handing it to Mr. Richman, and in another, the F.B.I. deemed the material classified only after it was in Mr. Richman's possession. Mr. Comey has said he shared the memos with Mr. Richman under the assumption that they would be shared with the news media and to put pressure on the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor.... The inspector general has questioned witnesses about the matter, and F.B.I. agents conducted a search of Mr. Richman's New York office to ensure that the leak was contained." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the thing: if Hillary Clinton was so "extremely careless" in using a not-officially-secured server to send a few e-mails to security-cleared staff, & if the memos were later deemed classified, & if no one intended to publish those e-mails, then even the most adoring Comey fan would have to conclude that Comey was "extremely manipulative" and "highly vindictive" to purposely arrange to leak his own memos. His argument that the memos belonged to him is nonsense. They describe privileged conversations with the POTUS*-elect & later POTUS*, conversations he had in his professional capacity as FBI director. The memos were work product when Comey wrote them, & they remained work product after Trump fired him. Just because he ascribes to himself a "noble purpose" doesn't make the leak any less a leak. By Comey's own reckoning (see published memos), his head belongs on a pike.

Josh Marshall: In the Comey memos, "Trump repeatedly not only denied the 'pee tape' accusations but he went on to say that he had not even spent the night in Russia. He apparently also told his high level staffers this.... There's ample evidence that Trump stayed not one but two nights. In July 2017, Bloomberg News's Vernon Silver and Evgenia Pismennaya reported out a detailed reconstruction of the trip based on FAA records, social media postings and interviews.... [Trump's] longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller... makes very clear [in testimony] that Trump did stay overnight in Moscow.... In any court, this lie would be entered as evidence of his lack of credibility on the main point." ...

... Greg Sargent has a good column arguing that release of the Comey memos sunk Trump: "These memos, if anything, confirm more credibly than before what Trump's frame of mind was in leading up to that firing — that is, the level of acquiescence that Trump wanted but did not get from Comey before firing him. These memos go further than before in supplying Trump's likely motive for the firing." Sargent is amused by the GOP's ludicrous claim that the memos actually vindicate Trump because Comey never wrote in a memo, "Woe is me! I feel so obstructed!" Sargent also notes an important question Rachel Maddow asked Comey last night in regard to Rudy Giuliani's foreknowledge of Comey's plan to reopen the Clinton investigation. Worth a read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Here's that portion of Maddow's interview:

... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "If House Republicans thought they were helping ... Donald Trump by forcing the release of James Comey's memos, they might want to think again. The documents written by the then-FBI director, detailing his interactions with Trump, present a contemporaneous and deeply unflattering view of a President throwing his weight around in his first days in the White House -- that at the very least seems highly inappropriate.... The Comey memos suggest Trump has a scattershot and self-obsessed mindset, brooding about his subordinates, leaks, his campaign and his inaugural crowd size and not appreciating or caring about protocol boundaries that separate the White House and the Justice Department. Furthermore, the conversations with Comey soon after Trump moved into the White House paint a picture of a new President more concerned with own fortunes than the burden of his new responsibilities.... Trump responded to the release of the memos on Twitter in an apparent attempt to direct conversation away from the embarrassing substance of the documents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Stef Kight of Axios: "Former Deputy FBI Director strong>Andrew McCabe is looking to sue for defamation, wrongful termination and other possible civil claims, his lawyer told reporters Friday....McCabe's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, also said his client told then-FBI Director James Comey that he was pushing back on stories about the Hillary Clinton investigation -- which would mean he didn't lack candor. They are seeking ways to release emails and phone call transcripts between McCabe and Comey to shed light on the issue."

Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump. The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt ... Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found there.... The case asserts that the Russian hacking campaign -- combined with Trump associates' contacts with Russia and the campaign's public cheerleading of the hacks -- amounted to an illegal conspiracy to interfere in the election that caused serious damage to the Democratic Party." Read on. The Democratic party won a similar suit against the Nixon campaign for the Watergate break-in. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rachel Maddow ran a useful segment on the 1972 suit the DNC brought against the Nixon campaign. It begins at about 2:40 min. in. Mrs. McC: I'm ashamed to say I remember nothing about the suit, even though I was following the presidential campaign closely that year:

More Bad News for Trump & Cohen. Beth Reinhard & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Keith Davidson, the former attorney for two women who were paid to keep quiet about their alleged affairs with Donald Trump, has been contacted by federal authorities investigating Trump attorney Michael Cohen and is cooperating with them, a spokesman for Davidson confirmed. Davidson was asked to provide 'certain limited electronic information' for the probe led by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, spokesman Dave Wedge said. 'He has done so and will continue to cooperate to the fullest extent possible under the law,' Wedge said in a statement Friday." ...

... Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "For years Mr. Trump treated Mr. Cohen poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired, according to interviews with a half-dozen people familiar with their relationship. 'Donald goes out of his way to treat him like garbage,' said Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump's informal and longest-serving political adviser, who, along with Mr. Cohen, was one of five people originally surrounding the president when he was considering a presidential campaign before 2016. Now..., Mr. Trump's lawyers and advisers have become resigned to the strong possibility that Mr. Cohen, who has a wife and two children and faces the prospect of devastating legal fees, if not criminal charges, could end up cooperating with federal officials who are investigating him for activity that could relate, at least in part, to work he did for Mr. Trump." ...

... Scott Glover, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge in California said Friday that he needed to hear from ... Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen directly before deciding whether to issue a stay in a civil lawsuit involving porn star Stormy Daniels.... Judge S. James Otero gave Cohen's attorney until Wednesday to file a declaration by Cohen himself indicating whether his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination could be at issue in the civil case due to an ongoing criminal investigation in New York." (Also linked yesterday.)

** White Supremacist-in-Chief. Dana Milbank: "I'd like to pause ... to reflect on just one thing the president did this week that, amid Russian hookers and his assaults on truth, law and decency, got little attention: his talk of immigrants 'breeding' in America's sanctuary cities. 'There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept,' the president tweeted on Tuesday.... Perhaps it is just coincidence that Trump used the language of [Nazis and] white supremacists.... A day after Trump's 'breeding' tweet, he visited a drug-interdiction operation and declared that 'human trafficking is worse than it's ever been in the history of the world.' Thus did the president erase three centuries of American history, during which millions of Africans were captured and enslaved in this hemisphere." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The "breeding" tweet, IMO, wasn't a dogwhistle to Trumpbots; it was a reflection of who the POTUS* is: a virulent racist.

Jonathan Greenberg, in a Washington Post story: "In May 1984, an official from the Trump Organization called to tell me how rich Donald J. Trump was. I was reporting for the Forbes 400, the magazine's annual ranking of America's richest people, for the third year. In the previous edition, we'd valued Trump's holdings at $200 million, only one-fifth of what he claimed to own in our interviews. This time, his aide urged me on the phone, I needed to understand just how loaded Trump really was. The official was John Barron -- a name we now know as an alter ego of Trump himself.... It took decades to unwind the elaborate farce Trump had built to project an image as one of the richest people in America. Nearly every assertion supporting that claim was untrue." Includes audio. If Trump's lies amuse you, read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bernard Condon of the AP: "The Kushner Cos. has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for information related to an Associated Press report that the company filed dozens of false documents about its buildings in New York City. The real estate company issued a statement saying it has 'nothing to hide and is cooperating fully with all legitimate requests for information, including this subpoena.'"

Anna Merlan of Splinter: A whole lot of people -- Wikipedia, news organization, 51 Member of Congress, Marco Rubio, for instance -- say that Mike Pompeo is a Gulf War veteran. He isn't. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Throughout all this, Pompeo has said nothing to correct the record."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Central Intelligence Agency took the unusual step Friday of declassifying and releasing a memo clearing Gina Haspel of any wrongdoing in drafting an order to destroy videotaped evidence of brutal interrogation techniques, a move that comes as part of a greater campaign to rehabilitate her image and shore up congressional support for her bid to become the agency's director. The memo, which former CIA deputy director Michael Morell wrote in 2011, is the result of a disciplinary review in which he 'found no fault with the performance of Ms. Haspel' -- primarily because she drafted the cable 'on the direct orders' of her superior and did not release it herself.... But senators clamoring for the CIA to declassify documents related to Haspel's record on techniques often referred to as torture and the order to destroy evidence were angered by what they saw as a 'selective' response to their demands.... Widespread concern about Haspel's role in the CIA's interrogation program has caused senators from both parties to question her record and her fitness to serve as the agency's director." ...

... Adam Goldman & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. is trying to ensure its deputy director, Gina Haspel, a career spy, is confirmed as its next director. Almost every detail of her life and work is classified; what little is known stems from her role overseeing the brutal interrogation of a terrorism suspect at a secret prison in Thailand and conveying orders to destroy videos documenting torture. To promote a more positive view of Ms. Haspel, the agency has declassified secrets about her life as a globe-trotting spy and encouraged former clandestine officers -- typically expected to remain quiet even in retirement -- to grant interviews. It sought to generate favorable news coverage by providing selective biographical details about Ms. Haspel to reporters, then sent a news release to highlight the resulting stories. The campaign to secure Ms. Haspel's confirmation reflects the view of many officials inside the C.I.A., who see her as the agency's best chance to keep a political partisan from being installed as director."

Ryan Grim & Alex Emmons of the Intercept: "Shortly after ... Donald Trump was inaugurated last year, top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy offered Russian gas giant Novatek a $26 million lobbying plan aimed at removing the company from a U.S. sanctions list, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.... Broidy proposed arranging meetings with key White House and congressional leaders and generating op-eds and other articles favorable to the Russian company, along with a full suite of lobbying activities to be undertaken by consultants brought on board. Yet even as he offered those services, Broidy was adamant that his company, Fieldcrest Advisors LLC, would not perform lobbying services but would hire others to do it. He suggested that parties to the deal sign a sweeping non-disclosure agreement that would shield their work from public scrutiny."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Federal civil rights prosecutors have recommended charges against a New York police officer in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, three current and former officials said, but top Justice Department officials have expressed strong reservations about whether to move forward with a case they say may not be winnable. Mr. Garner died on a Staten Island street after the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, used a chokehold to subdue him.... In recent weeks, career prosecutors recommended civil rights charges against Officer Pantaleo and sought approval from the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, to seek an indictment.... Based on the discussions so far, it appeared unlikely that Mr. Rosenstein would approve charges. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also been briefed on the case and could weigh in after Mr. Rosenstein makes his own recommendation, officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Wells Fargo is paying $1 billion to two federal regulators to settle an array of investigations into its mortgage and auto-lending practices. The settlements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were announced on Friday, as expected. The bank is effectively paying $500 million to each regulator. The consumer bureau said it was imposing a $1 billion penalty but was deducting from that the amount that Wells Fargo was paying to the currency comptroller." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elizabeth Dias & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont ... was blunt on Friday about the stakes for the Democratic Party. 'If Democrats control either the House or the Senate, Trump's agenda is dead,' Mr. Sanders said during a conversation with New York Times reporters and editors.... Mr. Sanders also argued that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other national party organizations are not doing enough to support liberal grass-roots candidates who are running against Mr. Trump and backing a progressive agenda. 'The establishment Democrats are still, I think, looking toward candidates who can self-fund,' said Mr. Sanders.... National Democrats 'still have a tendency to believe that more conservative candidates are better positioned to win,' he added."

Beyond the Beltway

Joel Currier & Robert Kirkpatrick of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Missouri "Gov. Eric Greitens, who has been in a public court fight against a felony invasion of privacy charge for nearly two months, now faces a new felony charge: that he misused a charity donor list to solicit campaign cash for his 2016 run for governor. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged Greitens, 44, with felony computer tampering relating to a list of donors to his St. Louis-based charity The Mission Continues, which Greitens founded in 2007 and left in 2014. The new charges rely at least in part on evidence shared with her office by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, a Republican, who announced Tuesday that his office had uncovered evidence Greitens misused the list to help fund his 2016 campaign."

Ricardo Cano of the Arizona Republic: "Arizona educators and school employees fueling the teacher-led #RedForEd movement have voted in support of a walkout -- an unprecedented action aimed at pressuring state leaders to act on their demands for more education funding.... [Teacher & organizer Noah] Karvelis said they will continue non-disruptive walk-in demonstrations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then walk out Thursday. This will give schools and parents time to prepare, he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, announced early Saturday that he had stopped nuclear and missile tests and would close a nuclear test site. The announcement, reported by North Korea's state media, appeared to signal a major policy shift ahead of Mr. Kim's meetings with the South Korean and American leaders. But Mr. Kim stopped short of promising to dismantle the nuclear weapons and long-range missiles North Korea has already built, holding onto them probably as a bargaining chip when he sits down with South Korea's leader, Moon Jae-in, next Friday, and President Trump weeks later."