The Commentariat -- November 26, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Andrew Desderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to enforce the panel's subpoenas seeking information about the Trump administration's failed efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.... The suit is an indication that Democrats believe their hand has been strengthened by the victory in the McGahn case as they seek documents related to other subpoenas that the Trump administration has defied. The House first voted to enforce the subpoenas in July, formally holding Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress for defying the committee's subpoenas seeking information about the administration's ultimately unsuccessful efforts to add a citizenship question to next year's census. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Barr or Ross for flouting the requests, arguing that the information Democrats were seeking was protected by executive privilege."

This Explains a Lot. Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I didn't know or forgot: one of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher's attorneys is Marc Mukasey, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Mike Mukasey. Mukasey ALSO is one of strong> Trump's attorneys in the Deutsche Bank/Capital One suit (lost that one yesterday). Mukasey, of course, has been working on both of these cases at the same time. But wait, there's more: Mukasey ALSO was a long-time law partner of Rudy Giuliani." Looks like we can stop blaming Fox "News" for Trump's interest in helping out war criminal Gallagher.

This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it. -- Rudy Giuliani, to the Washington Post in response to the story that follows ~~~

~~~ Rudy Giuliani, International Man of Misery. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "While in Spain [in August to press a top aide of Ukraine President Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, Rudy] Giuliani stayed at a historic estate belonging to Venezuelan energy executive Alejandro Betancourt López, who had hired Trump's personal attorney to help him contend with an investigation by the Justice Department into alleged money laundering and bribery, according to people familiar with the situation. A month later, Giuliani was one of several lawyers representing Betancourt in Washington. The lawyers met with the chief of the Justice Department's criminal division and other government attorneys to argue that the wealthy Venezuelan should not face criminal charges as part of a $1.2 billion money-laundering case filed in Florida last year, said the people.... Betancourt is not one of the eight men charged in the case.... But ... he is referred to in the criminal complaint as a uncharged co-conspirator, as previously reported by the Miami Herald. Giuliani's representation of Betancourt -- which has not been previously disclosed -- is a striking example of how Trump's lawyer has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the U.S. government while working on behalf of the president. And it shows how Giuliani -- who says he was serving as Trump's attorney pro bono -- has used his work for paying clients to help underwrite his efforts to find political ammunition in Ukraine to benefit the president."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "The Justice Department asked a federal judge Tuesday to put a temporary pause on her ruling that orders former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in the House impeachment probe, saying it needs the delay to pursue an appeal. While expected, the move from DOJ means that the primary congressional panel responsible for drafting articles of impeachment against ... Donald Trump likely won't hear anytime soon from McGahn, one of the star witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller's final report."

Guardian @ 9:37 ET: "A lawyer who represents [John] Bolton and his former deputy at the national security council, Charles Kupperman, said the ruling in Don McGahn's case does not apply to his clients.... The officials' attorney argued that, because the House judiciary committee was specifically not seeking information from McGahn on 'sensitive topics of national security or foreign affairs,' the ruling could not provide guidance on whether his clients should testify." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, I guess the Bolton/Kupperman lawyer didn't do a very good job of reading the ruling. As Charlie Savage of the NYT wrote (linked below), Judge Jackson "wrote that the law required not just Mr. McGahn, but 'other current and former senior-level White House officials' who receive a subpoena to appear, and that it made no difference 'whether the aides in question are privy to national security matters, or work solely on domestic issues.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Peter Baker of the New York Times talked to Bolton/Cooperman lawyer Charles Cooper. Cooper asserted that Judge Jackson made only "passing references" to national security matters, and those passing references "'are not authoritative on the validity of testimonial immunity for close White House advisers' whose 'responsibilities are focused exclusively o providing information and advice to the president on national security.'"

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John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday granted President Trump's request to temporarily stay a subpoena for his financial records from the House Oversight Committee, while the court considers whether to take up his appeal in the case." ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The court's action signals that, even as Congress considers impeaching Trump, the court will undertake a more complete consideration of the legal powers of Congress and state prosecutors to investigate the president while he is in office. The court instructed Trump's lawyers to file a petition by Dec. 5 stating why the court should accept the case for full briefing and oral argument. If the petition is eventually denied, the lower-court ruling will go into effect. If accepted, the case probably will be heard this term, with a decision before the court adjourns at the end of June." An AP story is here.

... the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings. -- Judge Ketanji Brown, in a ruling that Don McGahn must comply with a Congressional subpoena ~~~

~~~ ** John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal judge on Monday ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a subpoena and testify to Congress, delivering a significant win to House Democrats amid their impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee, means that McGahn is obligated to comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena from April seeking to compel his testimony.... Jackson's decision is likely to be appealed.... Democrats have held open the possibility of pursuing issues investigated by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including Trump's possible obstruction of justice. If House Democrats pursue that course, McGahn's testimony could prove critical given the central role he played in that particular phase of the probe, which examined 10 "episodes" of possible obstruction. The Mueller report found 'substantial evidence' that Trump leaned on McGahn to fire Mueller." ~~~

     ~~~ Spencer Hsu & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with a House subpoena, a federal court ruled Monday, finding that top presidential advisers cannot ignore congressional demands for information and raising the possibility that McGahn could be forced to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry.... '[T]he Court holds only that [McGahn] (and other senior presidentia advisors) do not have absolute immunity from compelled congressional process in the context of this particular subpoena dispute,' Jackson wrote, quoting a similar ruling by a Republican appointed judge in 2008 in a case involving former George W. Bush counsel Harriet Miers. Like Miers, Jackson wrote, 'Donald McGahn must appear before the Committee to provide testimony, and invoke executive privilege where appropriate.'... William A. Burck, McGahn's attorney, said, 'Don McGahn will comply with Judge Jackson's decision unless it is stayed pending appeal. DOJ is handling this case, so you will need to ask them whether they intend to seek a stay.'... Jonathan Shaub, a former attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, said a ruling against McGahn will 'provide cover for other witnesses, especially former employees who are inclined to testify but feel compelled by the White House's direction not to.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times report by Charlie Savage is here. "wrote that the law required not just Mr. McGahn, but 'other current and former senior-level White House officials' who receive a subpoena to appear, and that it made no difference 'whether the aides in question are privy to national security matters, or work solely on domestic issues.'" Mrs. McC: Yo, John Bolton. That means you.

~~~ The decision, via Politico, is here.

~~~ CNN is reporting that the White House will appeal the ruling. Mrs. McC: McGahn & others, of course, could just go ahead & honor the subpoenas beginning tomorrow. At the same time, since Judge Jackson's ruling allows that McGahn may invoke executive privilege "where appropriate," McGahn could apply that privilege quite liberally, and if the House isn't satisfied that those invocations are "appropriate," that could wind up back in court.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to deliver a report soon after Thanksgiving making the case for impeaching President Trump, the chairman said on Monday, moving quickly to escalate what he called 'urgent' evidence of wrongdoing by the president. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote in a letter to colleagues that after two months of inquiry amid consistent stonewalling by Mr. Trump, his panel has uncovered 'massive amounts of evidence' pointing to misconduct and 'corrupt intent' by the president. The evidence will be detailed in a report being drafted for public release and transmittal to the House Judiciary Committee shortly after lawmaker return from their holiday break, Mr. Schiff wrote. The Judiciary panel is expected to promptly draft and debate articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump based on its findings."

There's obviously a concerted effort to spread as many lies about me as possible, to destroy my reputation so that I'm not credible when I continue to reveal all of the massive evidence of criminality by the Bidens. -- Rudy Giuliani, Monday, responding to news that subpoenas have been issued related to his international forays ~~~

~~~ A Noun, a Verb, and a Boatload of Crimes. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Prosecutors have issued subpoenas to figures with ties to Rudy Giuliani... seeking information on his consulting firm Giuliani Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. The subpoenas also seek information on a company co-founded by Lev Parnas, a recently-arrested associate of Giuliani's, that paid Giuliani for legal and business advice, the Journal reported on Monday. The subpoenas, as described by the newspaper, listed numerous potential charges under consideration including obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements to the federal government and money laundering. They also seek materials relating to pro-Trump groups America First Action and America First Policies. Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for the groups, said they have reached out to the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office and offered their cooperation, and said neither was issued a subpoena. Giuliani told the Journal he had not been contacted by federal investigators." Mrs. McC: That's because you're the target, Rudy. You remember how that works, don't you? ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The list of possible crimes under investigation does not mean those charges will be filed. They do, however, indicate prosecutors are casting a wide net for wrongdoing as they examine the business and legal dealings of the president's personal lawyer and two Soviet emigres business executives who have been assisting Giuliani in the efforts to dig up damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the president's behalf."

Matt Stieb of New York: "On Sunday, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who plays a frequent defender of President Trump on TV, responded to a question from Fox News' Chris Wallace -- Was it Russia or Ukraine that hacked the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election? -- with a conspiratorial and wildly inaccurate answer. 'I don't know,' said Kennedy. 'Nor do you. Nor do any of us.' Aware of the total falsehood in his statement -- before Trump took office, the intelligence committee determined that Russia had meddled in the election to the benefit of the Republican candidate -- Johnson [Kennedy] promptly walked back his claim. Speaking with Chris Cuomo on Monday, Johnson [Kennedy] admitted that 'he was wrong' about the conspiracy that Ukraine hacked DNC emails and pinned the job on Russia."; Thanks to PD Pepe for the correction. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When Wallace countered him by noting that the entire intelligence community fingered Russia, Kennedy devolved into a story about how maybe it was Ukraine, too, blah-blah. No doubt the real reason Kennedy walked back his claim is that it made him a teevee laughing stock. More than half-a-dozen times on MSNBC & CNN (sometimes accompanied by the exclamation, "And he went to Oxford!"), I heard the clip of Kennedy's false claim being held up as an example of Republicans' complete capitulation to Trumpian delusion.

Andrew Sheeler of the Sacramento Bee: "Leading Democrats are calling for an investigation into a trip to Europe that Rep. Devin Nunes took last year with three aides after attorneys for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani told news outlets the Republican congressman sought dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. House travel records show Nunes traveled to Europe from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Three congressional aides who have worked for Nunes have matching travel receipts for the same dates, House records show. The trip cost $63,525.... While in Europe, Parnas' attorney Joseph A. Bondy said Nunes met with ousted Ukrainian top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who lost his job after Biden and other world leaders called for his dismissal. Nunes reportedly told Shokin of 'the urgent need' to investigate the company Burisma, which employed Biden's son Hunter as a member of its board of directors, and former Vice President Biden.... Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, on Monday called for Nunes to be investigated. She sits on the House Intelligence Committee with Nunes.... That investigation is 'quite likely' to happen, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, a senior-ranking Democrat who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday...."

Kara Scannell & Mark Morales of CNN: "David Pecker, the head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, has spoken with prosecutors with the New York district attorney's office as part of its investigation into the Trump Organization's handling of hush money payments to women who alleged affairs with .... Donald Trump, sources with knowledge of the meeting tell CNN. The America Media Inc. chairman's late October meeting with prosecutors from the major economic crimes bureau could provide key details on discussions that took place involving Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who allegedly had an affair with Trump, and agreements that were made with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the sources said. Cohen is cooperating with the investigation.... The meeting between Pecker and the local prosecutors shows that investigators are still trying to connect the dots between Trump and the hush money payments."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Because Republicans have been so successful in shrouding the origins of the Russia investigation in a miasma of misinformation, I hope some talented filmmaker makes a movie out of the new book by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, 'Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.' Simpson and Fritsch are the co-founders of Fusion GPS, the research firm that investigated Trump during the 2016 campaign, first for the conservative Washington Free Beacon, and then for a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was Fusion GPS that hired the British ex-spy Christopher Steele to look into Trump's Russia connections, and it sits at the center of countless pro-Trump conspiracy theories.... 'Crime in Progress' is the best procedural yet written about the discovery of Trump's Russia ties. It demolishes a number of right-wing talking points, including the claim that the Steele dossier formed the basis of the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence inquiry into Trump.... For years, Trump was financially entangled with organized crime as well as with Kremlin-friendly oligarchs, and by keeping those entanglements secret, he gave Putin leverage over him from the moment he took office."

Helene Cooper & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the Pentagon not to remove a Navy SEAL at the center of a high-profile war crimes case from the elite commando unit, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Monday. Mr. Esper's confirmation of the order from Mr. Trump is the latest turn in an extraordinary series of events that pitted the president against his senior military leadership over the fate of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the SEAL who was convicted of posing for photographs with the body of a teenage Islamic State captive in American custody." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Stefan Becket & Anna Gunther of CBS News: "Richard Spencer, the former secretary of the Navy, said he was fired before he could resign over the president's decision to intervene in an internal review of a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with [a] corpse, and downplayed a supposed backchannel offer to the White House that served as the justification for his ouster.... [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper told reporters Monday that he fired Spencer after 'losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor.' He accused Spencer of secretly proposing a deal to the White House that would allow Gallagher to retire and retain his Trident pin..., a move Esper said was 'completely contrary' to what the two had discussed. In an interview Monday, Spencer told CBS News he spoke with White House counsel Pat Cipollone on November 15 and proposed an arrangement in which Gallagher would be allowed to retire as a SEAL if the president agreed not to intervene in the case and 'let the Navy do its administrative work.' Spencer said Cipollone called back the same day to decline the offer, saying the president would be involved.... Spencer acknowledged not telling Esper about the proposal. 'I will take the bad on me, for not letting him know I did that,' Spencer said. 'But as far as I was concerned, at that point, the president understood the deal.... He said, "I'm going to be involved." He sent a signed letter to me, an order with his signature on it, saying, "Promote Edward Gallagher to E7,'" the rank of chief petty officer. Esper acknowledged Monday that when confronted about his secret negotiations with the White House, Spencer 'was completely forthright in admitting what had been going on.'" ~~~

~~~ Chris Riotta of the (U.K.) Independent: "US veterans decried Donald Trump's orders to restore an accused war criminal's rank in the Navy.... 'Ever since Donald Trump became president he's been tearing the military apart, putting troops in the difficult position of needing to choose between obedience to his unhinged orders, and staying true to our code of honour,' said Alexander McCoy, a former Marine and political director of the veteran group Common Defence. 'By pardoning war criminals because Fox News told him to, Trump showed he sees our military as a tool for massacres, not as the professional, honourable force we aspire to be.'... The president's demands could cause 'significant long-term damage to the Naval Special Warfare community,' according to James Waters, a former Navy SEAL platoon commander and White House staff member in the Bush administration, who told The Independent: 'The only people who weigh in on whether a Navy SEAL deserves to keep his Trident are people who have their Trident.'" ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "'Get back to business!' With this tweet, President Trump directed his secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, to stop the naval officers charged with oversight of the SEALs from disciplining one of their own.... It is very much the Navy's business -- and every military’s business -- to maintain, as the military so often recites and Mr. Spencer put it in his final letter to the president, 'good order and discipline.'... The military is not an extension of his White House.... Contamination from the president's approach is amplified when his judgment is largely shaped by television commentators and his decision announced by tweet.... Our president's endorsement of the perpetrator will be taken as a representation of our values. Our own troops, many of them teenagers, will be misled by the president's sense, or lack of sense, of honor." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah but. Undermining the military justice system, firing the Navy secretary, and giving clemency to alleged & convicted depraved murderers is okay if it's all just a campaign stunt. Think Ukraine scandal, but worse. ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "If Donald Trump gets his wish, he'll soon take the three convicted or accused war criminals he spared from consequence on the road as special guests in his re-election campaign, according to two sources who have heard Trump discuss their potential roles for the 2020 effort. Despite military and international backlash to Trump's Nov. 15 clemency ... Trump believes he has rectified major injustices. Two people tell The Daily Beast they've heard Trump talk about how he'd like to have the now-cleared Clint Lorance, Matthew Golsteyn, or Edward Gallagher show up at his 2020 rallies, or even have a moment on stage at his renomination convention in Charlotte next year. Right-wing media have portrayed all three as martyrs brought down by 'political correctness' within the military." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to a NYT report, "Since 2011, the Navy has revoked more than 150 Trident pins." I think it's fair to assume that the bad acts of the vast majority of former SEALs were far less egregious than the acts of which Gallagher was accused. Will Trump override the SEALs tribunals & restore all of these pins? Why not? As it stands, it's as if I get 10 years in the pen for driving 5 mph over the speed limit, but you get off scot-free for vehicular homicide. ~~~

~~~ John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump announced Sunday that Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, would replace Richard Spencer as the secretary of the Navy shortly after Spencer's ouster earlier in the day.... '... Admiral and now Ambassador to Norway Ken Braithwaite will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy. A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!' [Trump tweeted.] Mrs. McC: Did Braithwaite take the Trump loyalty oath? (Also linked yesterday.)

Laura Kelly of the Hill: "President Trump asked multiple federal agencies to address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 'concerns' that Turkey's state-owned bank would be under threat of U.S. sanctions, according to a response from the Treasury Department to a senior Democratic senator [Ron Wyden (Oregon)].... The response by Treasury confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg that in April Trump directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr to intervene in the case against Halkbank following a phone call between the two world leaders.... It is the first public U.S. admission of Trump directing Cabinet officials, in this case in Treasury and the Department of Justice, to involve themselves with Erdoğan's concerns around Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank indicted last month by federal prosecutors for allegedly funneling billions of dollars to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also raises questions about how Trump's personal relationships and business dealings influence his foreign policy decisions...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "United States troops have resumed large-scale counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State in northern Syria, military officials say, nearly two months after President Trump's abrupt order to withdraw American troops opened the way for a bloody Turkish cross-border offensive American-backed operations against ISIS fighters in the area effectively ground to a halt for weeks despite warnings from intelligence analysts that Islamic State militants were beginning to make a comeback from Syrian desert redoubts even though their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed during an American raid on Oct. 26. On Friday, American soldiers and hundreds of Syrian Kurdish fighters -- the same local allies the Trump administration abandoned to fend for themselves against the Turkish advance last month ==; reunited to conduct what the Pentagon said was a large-scale mission to kill and capture ISIS fighters in Deir al-Zour province, about 120 miles south of the Turkish border."

Paul Krugman: "... Trump is quietly applying a Ukraine-type extortion-and-bribery strategy to U.S. corporations. Many businesses are being threatened with policies that would hurt their bottom lines -- especially, but not only, tariffs on imported goods crucial to their operations. But they are also being offered the possibility of exemptions from these policies. And the implicit quid pro quo for such exemptions is that corporations support Donald Trump, or at least refrain from criticizing his actions.... The trouble with Trump's selective doling out of punishment isn't the harm it inflicts on corporations, it's the incentives this regime creates for political sycophancy." Krugman cites the examples of "Tim Apple"'s willingness to let Trump get away with gross falsehoods during a plant visit last week & the Pentagon's awarding a $10BB contract to Microsoft over the expected recipient, Jeff Bezos' Amazon Washington Post.

"The Chosen One." William Cummings of USA Today: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in an interview that he told ... Donald Trump that he was God's 'chosen one' to lead the United States, just as he chose the kings to lead Israel in the Old Testament.... 'Barack Obama didn't get to be the president of the United States without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump,' he said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, adding that God has used 'individuals who aren't perfect all through history.'" Mrs. McC: My, my, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials. Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president's wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. The president&'s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump's goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid." The Hill has a summary report here.

Michael E. Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "Stephen Miller linked immigration to violence in emails to Breitbart News.... 'It has never been easier in American history for illegal aliens to commit crimes of violence against Americans,' Miller, now White House senior policy adviser, argued in a Jan. 5, 2016, email.... Miller read an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that debunked a connection between immigration and crime, the emails show, but he chose to ignore it. Jason L. Riley, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, noted in the op-ed that 'numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants -- regardless of nationality or legal status -- are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or to be incarcerated.' In a July 15, 2015, email to Breitbart, Miller dismissed Riley's writing as being 'more lies about new [A]merica,' borrowing language found in white nationalist writing about evolving demographics." Mrs. McC: Wingers almost always dismiss inconvenient facts and usually disparage the fact-tellers.

Dennis Jett in the Atlantic: "As the rich get richer, the ambassadors get worse.... As the cost of American presidential campaigns skyrockets, as wealthy Americans flex their muscles within the American political system, and as the selling of ambassadorships for cold, hard cash becomes more and more overt.... No other developed democratic country -- and perhaps no other country in the world -- would entrust any part of its foreign policy to someone like Gordon Sondland.... Sondland is an egregious case, but Trump's predecessors made similar appointments for similar reasons. The three-week 'charm school' that new ambassadors attend is not enough to turn donors into diplomats. Four ambassadors appointed by Barack Obama performed so badly that, once the State Department inspector general issued reports on how poorly their embassies were run, they all resigned immediately." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Kusnet, in the New Republic, suggests that Anonymous, the author of a New York Times op-ed & a book about Trump's reckless presidency is likely Guy Snodgrass, "an apolitical retired Navy commander who became chief speechwriter for former Defense Secretary James Mattis. If so, he behaved ethically when he wrote an unsigned op-ed and contracted to expand it into a book."

Presidential Race 2020, Sort of

Julia Craven of Slate reminds us that John Delaney, who hasn't made the Democratic presidential debate cut since July, is still in the race. And he can do something that Trump can't do (and neither can I):

Lots of people "jumping" into the race so I decided to do a few sets of 10 box jumps on the 30 inch platform as a warmup to my workout! pic.twitter.com/u2SQwCp3ra

— John Delaney (@JohnDelaney) November 24, 2019

Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The world has squandered so much time mustering the action necessary to combat climate change that rapid, unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas emissions offer the only hope of averting an ever-intensifying cascade of consequences, according to new findings from the United Nations. Already, the past year has brought devastating hurricanes, relentless wildfires and crippling heat waves, prompting millions of protesters to take to the streets to demand more attention to a problem that seems increasingly urgent. Amid that growing pressure to act, Tuesday's U.N. report offers a grim assessment of how off-track the world remains. Global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, according to the United Nations' annual 'emissions gap' report, which assesses the difference between the world's current path and the changes needed to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord." The Guardian's report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Joe Sonka of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Gov. Matt Bevin has pardoned a man serving a life sentence for sexually abusing and sodomizing his 6-year-old stepdaughter 20 years ago. In his pardon and commutation order on Friday, Bevin wrote that Paul Donel Hurt had been wrongly convicted in Jefferson County in 2001 of three counts of sodomy in the first degree and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree.... In 2015, Hurt's accuser recanted her testimony in an evidentiary hearing. However, the trial court did not set aside the conviction, with Jefferson Circuit Judge Audra Jean Eckerle ruling that her recantation was an inconsistent, 'shifting account' that was 'no more likely to be true than false.' The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in August 2018, noting that after the retirement of Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Mershon -- the judge in the original conviction -- he began corresponding with Hurt in prison and contacted the victim, after which time she recanted.... Bevin issued 15 other pardons on Friday, including one for Justin Derrick Wibbels, who was convicted of wanton murder in Laurel County in 2015. Jerry Thompson was killed in 2014 when his vehicle was struck by a car driven by Wibbels. The governor wrote that Wibbles 'was involved in a tragic accident and has been incarcerated as a result of his conviction for wanton murder. This was not a murder.'"

The Commentariat -- November 25, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Helene Cooper & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the Pentagon not to remove a Navy SEAL at the center of a high-profile war crimes case from the elite commando unit, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Monday. Mr. Esper's confirmation of the order from Mr. Trump is the latest turn in an extraordinary series of events that pitted the president against his senior military leadership over the fate of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the SEAL who was convicted of posing for photographs with the body of a teenage Islamic State captive in American custody." The AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump announced Sunday that Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, would replace Richard Spencer as the secretary of the Navy shortly after Spencer's ouster earlier in the day.... '... Admiral and now Ambassador to Norway Ken Braithwaite will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy. A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!' [Trump tweeted.] Mrs. McC: Did Braithwaite take the Trump loyalty oath?

Laura Kelly of the Hill: "President Trump asked multiple federal agencies to address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 'concerns' that Turkey's state-owned bank would be under threat of U.S. sanctions, according to a response from the Treasury Department to a senior Democratic senator [Ron Wyden (Oregon)].... The response by Treasury confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg that in April Trump directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr to intervene in the case against Halkbank following a phone call between the two world leaders.... It is the first public U.S. admission of Trump directing Cabinet officials, in this case in Treasury and the Department of Justice, to involve themselves with Erdoğan's concerns around Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank indicted last month by federal prosecutors for allegedly funneling billions of dollars to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also raises questions about how Trump's personal relationships and business dealings influence his foreign policy decisions...."

"The Chosen One." William Cummings of USA Today: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in an interview that he told ... Donald Trump that he was God's 'chosen one' to lead the United States, just as he chose the kings to lead Israel in the Old Testament.... 'Barack Obama didn't get to be the president of the United States without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump,' he said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, adding that God has used 'individuals who aren't perfect all through history.'" Mrs. McC: My, my, the Lord moves in mysterious ways.

Dennis Jett in the Atlantic: "As the rich get richer, the ambassadors get worse.... As the cost of American presidential campaigns skyrockets, as wealthy Americans flex their muscles within the American political system, and as the selling of ambassadorships for cold, hard cash becomes more and more overt.... No other developed democratic country -- and perhaps no other country in the world -- would entrust any part of its foreign policy to someone like Gordon Sondland.... Sondland is an egregious case, but Trump's predecessors made similar appointments for similar reasons. The three-week 'charm school' that new ambassadors attend is not enough to turn donors into diplomats. Four ambassadors appointed by Barack Obama performed so badly that, once the State Department inspector general issued reports on how poorly their embassies were run, they all resigned immediately."

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Mrs. McCrabbie: I added some links fairly late this morning. Biggest one is the NYT story, by Jo Becker & others, on the Three Stooges' attempts to get help from a couple of Ukrainian oligarchs.

Ashley Parker & Dan Lamothe of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer's resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer's resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia. Spencer's private proposal to the White House -- which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter -- contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "But Mr. Spencer had also provoked Mr. Trump's ire by threatening to resign over the case and by publicly saying he disagreed with the president's decision to intervene in favor of the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, Defense Department officials said. Mr. Spencer's friends cited those reasons for his departure, saying that Mr. Esper was mischaracterizing the situation." An Axios report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Everyone Donald Trump touches loses his soul -- if s/he had one. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Spencer's resignation letter, where he tries to reclaim some of his (soul, that is). "Rule of law" is mentioned. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "President Trump's attempt to manipulate military justice had a sorry outcome Sunday with the firing of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer. For the past nine months, Spencer had tried to dissuade Trump from dictating special treatment for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher -- but in the end Spencer was sacked for his efforts to protect his service. ​With Spencer's firing, Trump has recklessly crossed a line he had generally observed before, which had exempted the military from his belligerent, government-by-tweet interference. But the Gallagher case illustrates how an irascible, vengeful commander in chief is ready to override traditional limits to aid political allies in foreign policy, law enforcement and now military matters.... 'The president wants you to go,' [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper told Spencer on Sunday, according to [a] source. Esper then toed the White House line and announced Spencer's dismissal. For Pentagon officials who have wondered whether Esper would have the backbone to resist Trump, Sunday's events were troubling. The Pentagon, like the State Department under Mike Pompeo, is now overseen by an official whose overriding priority seems to be accommodating an impetuous boss in the White House."

He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust, and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing the first Magistrate in foreign pay, without being able to guard against it by displacing him. This Magistrate is not the King but the prime minister. The people are the King. -- Founder Gouverneur Morris, 1787, on the need for an impeachment provision in the U.S. Constitution ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "Americans agree to give their elected officials power over them, and those officials agree to exercise that power on Americans' behalf. If the nation's leaders breach that deal by lining their own pockets and bartering the interests of their citizens, they break the trust that self-government and democracy depend on. The testimony so far indicates that it's even worse in this case. It suggests that Mr. Trump wasn't simply soliciting a bribe, but doing s to try to rig the next election. It should go without saying that representative democracy cannot work if its leaders are cheating to keep themselves in power. The argument that there's nothing to worry about because Mr. Trump's Ukraine scheme didn't work in the end misses the point. If Mr. Trump is allowed to get away with this blatant attempt at subverting the will of the 2020 voters, what's to stop him from trying again?"

... a big scandal may break out, and not only in Ukraine, but in the United States. That is, it may turn out to be a clear conspiracy against Biden. -- Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, ca. April 2019 ~~~

~~~ ** Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: How Rudy, Lev & Igor tried to cajole two Ukrainian oligarchs to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, using assistance from Donald Trump & Bill Barr as the quo to their quid. It worked with Dmitry Firtash, who is under investigation by the FBI & is fighting extradition to the U.S., but not with Igor Kolomoisky, whose U.S. legal problems are less dire & who threw Lev & Igor out of his office when they approached him to make a deal. More on the Three Stooges linked below, but this is Da Bomb. The cast of characters is by now familiar but the extent to which our American cousins went to muscle Ukrainians is not. (In fairness, the sources of the story have plenty of reason to make themselves appear more innocent & the Three Stooges more guilty, but one would be forgiven for trusting even foreign oligarchs over Trump's mob. Besides, in the case of Firtash, Barr did the quo.) Law & Crime has a summary of the report. Mrs. McC: My only question, do the Stooges wear zoot suits & fedoras to these meetings? ~~~

~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney considered representing a state-owned Ukrainian bank this summer while leading an apparent extortion scheme against the foreign country. Rudy Giuliani confirmed that he held discussions with Privatbank about assisting in a civil suit to recover assets linked to a former owner with ties to Ukraine's president, reported Bloomberg News.... Ukraine's previous administration nationalized Privatbank in 2016 and accused previous owner Igor Kolomoisky and his co-founder of stealing billions of dollars." Mrs. McC: Sooner or later, the FBI has to nab Giuliani for his Ukraine schemes. He was not only trying to extort Ukrainians to help Trump; at the same time, he was trying to drum up business for himself.

In case you were wondering, "Whatever does the White House have to hide?" here's a teensy taste: ~~~

~~~ ** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "A confidential White House review of President Trump's decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel's Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after President Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July... One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president.... Mulvaney's request for information came days after the White House Counsel's Office was put on notice that an anonymous CIA official had made a complaint to the agency's general counsel about Trump's July 25 call to [Ukraine President] Zelensky...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The White House woodwork is chock full of creepy critters, and they keep crawling out.

Rebecca O'Brien & Christopher O'Brien of Market Watch: "Two associates of Rudy Giuliani tried to recruit a top Ukrainian energy official in March in a proposed takeover of the state oil-and-gas company, describing the company's chief executive and the then-U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of 'this Soros cartel' working against President Trump. 'You're a Republican, right?' Andrew Favorov, the head of natural gas for state-run Naftogaz, recalled the men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, asking him, after their reference to investor and Democratic donor George Soros. 'We want you to be our guy.' Favorov said he met voluntarily this week with New York federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into the activities of Fruman, Parnas and Giuliani...." ~~~

~~~ Lev Kept the Receipts. Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The House Intelligence Committee is in possession of audio and video recordings and photographs provided to the committee by Lev Parnas, an associate of ... Rudy Giuliani, who reportedly played a key role in assisting him in his efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. The material submitted to the committee includes audio, video and photos that include Giuliani and Trump. It was unclear what the content depicts and the committees only began accessing the material last week. 'We have subpoenaed Mr. Parnas and [Igor] Fruman for their records. We would like them to fully comply with those subpoenas,' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told CNN Sunday, with a committee spokesperson adding they would not elaborate beyond the chairman's comments." ~~~

~~~ Devin Nunes, Junior Spy, Ctd. Tareq Haddad of Newsweek: "Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican member on the House Intelligence Committee, spent nearly $57,000 on a trip to Europe for him and his staff to allegedly investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, records show. The figures seem to confirm allegations made by Lev Parnas -- a Ukrainian-born American who worked as a 'fixer' for Rudy Giuliani before being indicted on criminal charges -- who said that he helped Nunes arrange meetings with various Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Biden. Parnas said he met Nunes in a secretive trip to Vienna, Austria, between November and December 2018, and put him in touch with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin -- the lawyer who was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including Biden, who said he was not doing enough to combat corruption." ~~~

     ~~~ Devin Has Another Cow. Elise Viebeck & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: Devin Nunes, "the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said reports that he met with ex-Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in Vienna last year were false, but declined to elaborate in an interview on Fox News." Mrs. McC: Of course he denied it. A junior spy knows not to blow his cover. ~~~

~~~ Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The lawyer for an indicted business associate of Rudy Giuliani said his client is prepared to testify under oath that aides to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, scrapped a trip to Ukraine this year when they realized it would mean notifying Democratic Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff. Lev Parnas would tell Congress that the purpose of the planned trip was to interview two Ukrainian prosecutors who claim to have evidence that could help ... Donald Trump's reelection campaign, Parnas' attorney, Joseph Bondy, told CNBC. But when Nunes' staff realized that going to Ukraine themselves would mean alerting Schiff to their plans, they instead asked Parnas to set up the meetings for them over phone and Skype, which he did, according to Bondy." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is very much like Devin's midnight run to the White House, but now he's an international junior spy! From "A Night at the White House" to "A Night in Vienna" and "A Midnight Call to Kiev."

Chandelis Duster & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff left the door open to the possibility of more hearings or depositions in the impeachment inquiry but said that Democrats will not 'wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try to stall.' Schiff indicated on Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" that Democrats would not be taking former national security adviser John Bolton to court for his testimony. Schiff also said Bolton should have the 'courage' to testify like former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill and others. And if he chooses not to testify, Bolton will have to explain to the country 'why did he wait to tell' his story in his upcoming book rather than to the public 'when it mattered.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said on Sunday that one reason the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry hasn't been called by the House to testify is that ... Donald Trump called the person a spy and threatened the whistleblower with the 'death penalty.'... 'We had a deep interest in having [him] testify,' Schiff told [Chuck] Todd [on 'Meet the Press']. 'Two things happened. One we were able to prove it with witnesses that had first-hand information and second the president and his allies effectively put that whistleblower's life in danger. The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty.'..."

Sarah Kendzior of The Globe & Mail: "Ms. [Fiona] Hill is no longer merely a scholar of dictators; she is now a player in their propaganda through no fault of her own.... In Mr. Trump's reality TV world, positions are not filled but cast.... Like Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman and Marie Yovanovitch, she is both an immigrant American and an expert on the former Soviet Union. None of these witnesses took democracy for granted because they had witnessed its grim alternative in post-Soviet kleptocracies. As experts, they were a threat in the administration, and they remain so outside of it.... The Trump strategy [has become] to flip the script and investigate the investigators.... The witnesses to crimes, not the perpetrators, are the true guilty parties.... Impeachment hearings threaten Mr. Trump because they happen in an environment he cannot control, where a neutral arbiter can speak without media interlocutors. Fiona Hill debunked Mr. Trump's fictions and followed federal law. That she did so at a time where following federal law renders you a subversive in the eyes of the President should unnerve everyone." --s

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Many were perplexed and outraged when, right after clashing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a heated Oval Office meeting on Nov. 13, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham hurried back to the Senate floor and ... blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey's genocide of the Armenian people.... As Graham was leaving the Oval Office, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution -- a measure that would have infuriated Erdoğan. Graham confirmed this in a phone interview on Saturday.... Asked whether he felt uncomfortable blocking the Armenian genocide resolution, Graham replied: 'Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He's been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear.... I'm not going to object next time,' Graham added. The "next time" happened last week. Menendez and his Republican Senate colleague Ted Cruz introduced the Armenian genocide resolution again. This time, the White House asked another Republican Senate ally, David Perdue, to block it." And he did.

Presidential Race 2020

Emma Newburger & Brian Schwartz of CNBC: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered the 2020 presidential race on Sunday following weeks of speculation about whether he would join the crowded Democratic primary. [A] television ad touts Bloomberg's record as mayor and promises 'to rebuild the country and restore faith in the dream that defines us: where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share; everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs, keep it; where jobs won't just help you get by but get ahead.... And on all those things, Mike Bloomberg intends to make good,' the ad said. The new ad is part of his $31 million television ad buy." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Calderone of Politico: "Bloomberg News will report on Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign, though will not investigate the candidate or his Democratic rivals, the company's top editor told staff on Sunday. 'We will write about virtually all aspects of this presidential contest in much the same way as we have done so far,' editor-in-chief John Micklethwait told staff in a Sunday memo. 'We will describe who is winning and who is losing. We will look at policies and their consequences. We will carry polls, we will interview candidates and we will track their campaigns, including Mike's.' Micklethwait also said that some of the news organization's opinion and editorial writers would take a leave to join the campaign."

David Gura of NBC News: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home and resting after being hospitalized on Friday. Ginsburg, 86, has been released after being admitted with chills and a fever, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said on Sunday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Allison Sommer of Haaretz: "The rise and catastrophic downfall of WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neumann has been chronicled in gleeful detail across the international financial press in the wake of his company's ill-fated attempt at a public offering -- which resulted in disastrous revelations about the company's mismanagement, its devaluation and, ultimately, Neumann's resignation. But a new Vanity Fair article by Gabriel Sherman..., asserts that Neumann's 'millennial entitlement gone insane' and guru-like 'egomaniacal glamour' extended beyond the business world and into the world of Middle East diplomacy." ~~~

~~~ Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "WeWork [Israeli] cofounder Adam Neumann ... [has a] habit of making grandiose pronouncements like wanting to be elected president of the world, live forever, and become humanity's first trillionaire.... The company's valuation put Neumann's net worth at $4.1 billion -- and his spending more than kept pace.... Last summer, some WeWork executives were shocked to discover Neumann was working on Jared Kushner's Mideast peace effort ... Neumann told colleagues that he was saving the women of Saudi Arabia by working with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer women coding classes, according to a source. In another meeting, Neumann said three people were going to save the world: bin Salman, Jared Kushner, and Neumann." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong. Shibani Mahtani, et al., of the Washington Post: "Voters took to the polls in record numbers to cast ballots in the only fully democratic election in the Chinese territory, an early sign that they wanted to send a strong message to their government and to the Communist Party in Beijing. Early results compiled by the South China Morning Post showed pro-democracy parties winning 278 of the first 344 seats to be declared, pro-Beijing parties taking 42, and independents 24. Many prominent figures in the protest movement won; many leading pro-establishment figures were unseated. Pro-democrats look to be able to secure 12 of 18 district councils available in Hong Kong -- before this vote, they did not have a majority in any." An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jeffie Lam, et al., of the South China Morning Post: "The final election results were confirmed at 1pm on Monday when the vote count was completed.... Among the 452 seats up for grabs, the pan-democrats were victorious in 347, the independents -- many of them pro-democracy -- won 45, while the pro-establishment camp had to make do with 60. The pro-democracy camp now has control of 17 out of 18 district councils."

U.K. Robert Booth of the Guardian: “Prince Andrew is to withdraw from scores of charities in a move that appeared designed to protect the monarchy from further humiliation over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Sunday that the Duke of York is 'standing back from all his patronages' but indicated he still hopes to return to a public role at some point by saying the move was only temporary." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ No Birthday Bash for Andy. Nick Enoch of the Daily Mail: "The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February. Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke, according to The Sunday Times. His birthday is on February 19." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- November 24, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ashley Parker & Dan Lamothe of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer's resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer&'s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia. Spencer's private proposal to the White House -- which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter -- contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement." An Axios report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Everyone who comes in contact with Donald Trump turns to dust.

In case you were wondering, "Whatever does the White House have to hide?" here's a teensy taste: ~~~

~~~ ** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "A confidential White House review of President Trump's decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel's Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after President Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July... One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president.... Mulvaney's request for information came days after the White House Counsel's Office was put on notice that an anonymous CIA official had made a complaint to the agency's general counsel about Trump's July 25 call to [Ukraine President] Zelensky...."

Hong Kong. Ken Moritsugu & Eileen Ng of the AP: "Partial returns early Monday from Hong Kong's local elections showed that pro-democracy candidates won more than a third of the seats in balloting that was seen as a test of support for the anti-government protests that rocked the Chinese territory for more than five months. Among the winners in Sunday's vote that drew a massive turnout were former student leaders and a candidate who replaced prominent activist Joshua Wong, the only person barred from running in the election. Rally organizer Jimmy Sham, who was beaten by hammer-wielding assailants last month, also triumphed, as did a pro-democracy lawmaker who had part of his ear bitten off by an assailant. So far, pro-democracy candidates have won 159 out of 452 seats in 18 district council races. Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing political party suffered the biggest setback, with more than 100 of its 182 candidates defeated."

Chandelis Duster & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff left the door open to the possibility of more hearings or depositions in the impeachment inquiry said that Democrats will not 'wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try to stall.' Schiff indicated on Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" that Democrats would not be taking former national security adviser John Bolton to court for his testimony. Schiff also said Bolton should have the 'courage' to testify like former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill and others. And if he chooses not to testify, Bolton will have to explain to the country 'why did he wait to tell' his story in his upcoming book rather than to the public 'when it mattered.'"

David Gura of NBC News: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home and resting after being hospitalized on Friday. Ginsburg, 86, has been released after being admitted with chills and a fever, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said on Sunday."

U.K. Robert Booth of the Guardian: "Prince Andrew is to withdraw from scores of charities in a move that appeared designed to protect the monarchy from further humiliation over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Sunday that the Duke of York is 'standing back from all his patronages' but indicated he still hopes to return to a public role at some point by saying the move was only temporary." ~~~

~~~ No Birthday Bash for Andy. Nick Enoch of the Daily Mail: "The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February. Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke, according to The Sunday Times. His birthday is on February 19."

Emma Newburger & Brian Schwartz of CNBC: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered the 2020 presidentia race on Sunday following weeks of speculation about whether he would join the crowded Democratic primary. [A] television ad touts Bloomberg's record as mayor and promises 'to rebuild the country and restore faith in the dream that defines us: where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share; everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs, keep it; where jobs won't just help you get by but get ahead.... And on all those things, Mike Bloomberg intends to make good,' the ad said. The new ad is part of his $31 million television ad buy." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Admiral, Navy Secretary Revolt Against Commander-in-Chief*. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "The secretary of the Navy and the admiral who leads the SEALs have threatened to resign or be fired if plans to expel a commando from the elite unit in a war crimes case are halted by President Trump, administration officials said Saturday. The Navy is proceeding with the disciplinary plans against the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who counts Mr. Trump as one of his most vocal supporters. The threats by the Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, and Rear Adm. Collin Green are a rare instance of pushback against Mr. Trump from members of the Defense Department. Chief Gallagher was accused of shooting civilians, murdering a captive Islamic State fighter with a hunting knife in Iraq, and threatening to kill SEALs who reported him, among other misconduct. His court-martial ended in acquittal on those charges. But the Navy ultimately demoted the chief, who was convicted of one charge: bringing discredit to the armed forces by posing for photos with the teenage captive's dead body. Last Friday, Mr. Trump reversed that demotion, angering Navy officials, who had little choice but to accept the reversal. Nonetheless, they continued with their plans to expel Chief Gallagher from the unit. On Thursday, the president intervened again in the case, saying that the commando should remain in the unit.... A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment." ~~~

     ~~~ Or Not. Update. Spencer Is Not That Principled. Karen DeYoung & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said Saturday that he would comply with any order by President Trump regarding the case of a Navy SEAL whose continuance in the elite unit is being reviewed by the service after a controversial murder charge. 'I work at the pleasure of the president,' Spencer said, denying reports that he has threatened to resign. 'I do not interpret what the president does. I do what he says.' But Spencer said he did not consider a presidential tweet to be an order.... 'The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher's Trident Pin,' the SEAL insignia, Trump tweeted on Thursday. 'This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!'" ~~~

~~~ Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Military leaders hoping to keep the Secretary of the Navy from quitting lobbied ... Donald Trump aboard Air Force One to stop intervening in the case of a Navy SEAL accused of murder, say five current and one former military and defense officials.... Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, Army Chief of Staff General [James] McConville, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and Sgt. Major of the Army Michael Grinston spoke with the president about the process on Air Force One Thursday night...." ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "That Mr. Trump would pardon men accused or convicted of war crimes should come as little surprise, given that he campaigned on promises to torture the nation's enemies and kill their families. Mr. Trump in May became the first modern president to pardon a person convicted of war crimes, when he pardoned Michael Behenna, a former Army lieutenant, who had been convicted of killing a prisoner in Iraq.... Absolving people who commit war crimes does great harm to society in general, and the men and women who served honorably.... A nation has to know that military action being taken in its name follows morally defensible rules -- that soldiers do not, for instance, kill unarmed civilians or prisoners. To excuse men who have so flagrantly violated those rules -- to treat them as heroes, even -- is to cast the idea of just war to the winds. It puts the nation and veterans at risk of moral injury, the shattering of a moral compass."

Maybe Everything You Need to Know about Donald Trump. Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump said Friday that Xi Jinping would have 'obliterated' Hong Kong, and killed 'thousands' of its people, if he had not personally asked the Chinese leader to refrain from mass murder. Trump went on to call Xi 'a friend of mine,' and an 'incredible guy.'"

Zeke Miller of the AP: "Vice President Mike Pence worked to reassure the United States' Kurdish allies in an unannounced trip to Iraq on Saturday, the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago. Flying in a C-17 military cargo aircraft, Pence landed in Irbil, capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani. The visit was meant to hearten the United States' regional partners in the fight against the Islamic State group after the U.S. pulled troops northern Syria, leaving America's Kurdish allies there to face a bloody cross-border Turkish assault last month. Asked by reporters if the United States was facing a sense of betrayal from Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish allies over Trump's actions in Syria, Pence said both groups, including Syrian Kurdish forces 'who fought alongside us,' had no doubts about the U.S. commitment to them. 'It's unchanging,' Pence said." Mrs. McC: Right.

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "This was the Friday news dump to end all news dumps.... Beyond the obvious conclusions -- that the president* is guilty as hell, and he is using as his primary defense a disinformation project devised in Moscow, and, in the interest of advancing the latter, he tried to shakedown a vulnerable ally under literal siege by the military forces of the government that dreamed up the president*'s primary alibi -- this sudden avalanche of information fairly screams out for the inquiry to play out as it will play out, and that short-circuiting its process is both bad detective work and bad politics. Just on Friday, we learned that Nunes and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were roped into this mess, too." --s

Edward Wong & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Internal State Department emails and documents released late Friday further implicate Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a campaign orchestrated this year by President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to pressure Ukraine for political favors." Besides proving Pompeo & Rudy Guiliani spoke in the month before Pompeo ordered Ambassador Marie Yovanovtich out of Ukraine, "the documents also show that the State Department sent members of Congress a deliberately misleading reply about Ms. Yovanovitch's departure after they asked about pressure on her.... The documents, and recent congressional testimonies in the impeachment inquiry, tie Mr. Pompeo closely to efforts by Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani to persuade the Ukrainian government to announce investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically.... The documents bolstered testimony delivered Wednesday by Gordon D. Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union.... He told lawmakers ... that Mr. Pompeo had full knowledge of the campaign and even approved certain hard-line tactics.... The documents, testimony and interviews with Mr. Giuliani paint a portrait of a secretary of state who not only had intimate knowledge of the pressure campaign against Ukraine and the effort to undermine and remove a respected ambassador, but took part in her ouster despite warnings about the campaign from lawmakers and a half-dozen former ambassadors to Ukraine." See yesterday's Commentariat for related stories.

Marty Johnson of the Hill: "Rudy Giuliani ... elaborated on his 'insurance policy' Saturday, tweeting that he has files in his safe 'about the Biden Family's 4 decade monetizing of his office.' 'TRUTH ALERT: The statement I've made several times of having an insurance policy, if thrown under bus, is sarcastic & relates to the files in my safe about the Biden Family's 4 decade monetizing of his office,' Giuliani tweeted. 'If I disappear, it will appear immediately along with my RICO chart,' he added.... Earlier in the day, the former New York mayor appeared on Fox News, where he said that he has 'insurance' in case Trump decides to throw him under the bus. 'I've seen things written like he's going to throw me under the bus. When they say that, I say he isn't, but I have insurance,' Giuliani told Fox News's Ed Henry."

Chris Sommerfeldt & Dave Goldiner of the New York Daily News (Nov. 22): "One of the Florida businessmen who worked with Rudy Giuliani on his hunt for Ukrainian dirt on Democrats has turned over a trove of 'hard evidence' to impeachment investigators -- including photos and videos, one of his lawyers said Friday. Lev Parnas, who was criminally charged last month in a sweeping campaign finance scheme that overlaps with the House impeachment inquiry, had so much evidence it had to be sent to investigators in several batches, the attorney, Joseph Bondy, told the Daily News. Bondy said he has also tried to schedule a time for Parnas to testify under oath before the House Intelligence Committee about the 'first-hand knowledge' he says his client has about President Trump's bid to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden's family and other Democrats before the 2020 election. However, impeachment investigators have yet to take up Parnas' offer, even though the subpoena he was issued last month demanded he come in for a closed-door deposition on Oct. 10, Bondy said. Parnas couldn't make that deposition because he was in custody in Virginia awaiting arraignment in New York on the campaign finance charges, Bondy said."

Brent Larkin of Cleveland.com: "Jim Jordan ... [is] now the second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government.... And now it's fitting that Republicans have given this seven-term sycophant a starring role in the televised House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. The assignment comes as Jordan is being credibly accused by some of knowingly turning a blind eye to ... sexual assaults and ...rapes of student[s].... That makes Jordan an ideal candidate to lead the defense of a malignant president who has bragged about physically abusing women and who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual assault or misconduct.... When Jordan slithers out from under his rock each morning, dons a shirt and tie - sans the jacket, lest he be mistaken for Joe McCarthy - his life's work is to besmirch everything America stands for in service of Donald Trump.... Jordan is the ideal bootlicker." Read the whole post. --s

Evan Semones of Politico: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), "the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, said Saturday that Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is likely to face an ethics investigation over allegations he met with an ex-Ukrainian prosecutor at the center of the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump.... CNN reported late Friday that [Lev Parnas,] an associate of Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, has information on meetings Nunes allegedly had with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin.... Nunes called the CNN report 'demonstrably false' in an interview with Breitbart." ~~~

~~~ Tareq Haddad of Newsweek: "Devin Nunes ... is reportedly threatening to sue CNN and The Daily Beast after the publications reported damaging allegations that could implicate him in the ongoing impeachment probe the committee is currently conducting. Nunes ... faced calls to recuse himself and even to be investigated after it was alleged that he himself met with Ukrainian officials in order to discuss digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. If accurate, the claim would implicate Nunes in the events his committee is investigating.... Nunes told Breitbart News that he now plans to sue the publications, although he did not specify what was he believed to be factually incorrect with any of their reporting."

Ellen of Crooks & Liars: "[Friday] night, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs lobbed a softball to Press Secretary (and obvious liar) Stephanie Grisham that all but asked her to shoot down [John] Bolton's accusation [that the White House had refused to give him access to his personal Twitter account.]... Rather than refute the accusation, Grisham suggested Bolton's 'advanced age' is to blame[.]... If your Spidey senses aren't already tingling from Grisham's dodgy and outright ridiculous smear about a man who has been active on Twitter for almost a decade and has more than 847,000 Twitter followers, then The New York Times should set you straight: Bolton had turned over control of his account to the White House. He was no longer able to access that account shortly after tweeting his accusation that Trump had lied about firing him. According to the Times, the White House had evidently changed his password and verifying email address." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bolton is two-and-a-half years younger than Grisham's very stable genius boss Donald Trump, who seems to be able to handle a Twitter account.

Andrew Taylor of the AP: "Negotiations on a package of spending bills to fund the federal government have produced a key breakthrough, though considerably more work is needed to wrap up the long-delayed measures. Top lawmakers of the House and Senate Appropriations committees on Saturday confirmed agreement on allocations for each of the 12 spending bills, a step that allows negotiations on the $1.4 trillion budget bundle to begin in earnest to try to pass the measures by a Dec. 20 deadline. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., announced the agreement on Saturday through aides."

Presidential Races 2016, 2020

AP: "Michael Bloomberg will not accept political donations if he runs for president and he will not take a salary if he wins, according to senior aides who offered new details on Saturday about the New York billionaire's plans to navigate his wealth as he marches toward a formal 2020 announcement.... In recent days, he has created a presidential campaign committee wit the Federal Election Commission and qualified for the primary ballot in at least three states. Bloomberg's team has reserved more than $30 million in television ads set to begin running Sunday in several primary states."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Saturday, Deepa Seetharaman of the Wall Street Journal profiled James Barnes, a former Facebook employee who was credited by the Trump campaign as their inside man and 'MVP' at the social network -- and who is now fighting to defeat the president in 2020. 'James Barnes left Facebook this spring, and said he is now dedicated to using the digital-ad strategies he employed on behalf of the Trump campaign to get President Trump out of office in 2020,' wrote Seetharaman. 'Mr. Barnes, who had been a lifelong Republican, has registered as a Democrat and recently started working with a progressive nonprofit called Acronym, where former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is on the board.'" The WSJ story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Friday night after experiencing chills and fever earlier in the day, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said on Saturday.... Justice Ginsburg's symptoms abated after treatment with intravenous antibiotics and fluids, [the spokeswoman] said, adding the justice expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning."

William Broad of the New York Times: "The world's first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexican desert -- a result of a highly secretive effort code-named the Manhattan Project, whose nerve center lay nearby in Los Alamos. Just 49 months later, the Soviets detonated a nearly identical device in Central Asia, and Washington's monopoly on nuclear arms abruptly ended. How Moscow managed to make such quick progress has long fascinated scientists, federal agents and historians. The work of three spies eventually came to light. Now atomic sleuths have found a fourth. Oscar Seborer, like the other spies, worked at wartime Los Alamos, a remote site ringed by tall fences and armed guards. Mr. Seborer nonetheless managed to pass sensitive information about the design of the American weapon to Soviet agents. The spy fled to the Soviet Union some years later; the F.B.I. eventually learned of his defection and the espionage but kept the information secret. His role 'has remained hidden for 70 years,' write Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes in the current issue of Studies in Intelligence, the C.I.A.'s in-house journal; their article is titled 'On the Trail of a Fourth Soviet Spy at Los Alamos.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Adam Blenkov of Business Insider: "Boris Johnson's Conservative Party election campaign received a six-figure donation from [Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of the Russian oligarch Vladimir Chernukhin] and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The prime minister's party received £5.7 million in donations in the first week of the campaign, mostly from senior business figures and hedge funds, more than 25 times the amount raised by the opposition Labour Party.... Chernukhin previously paid £160,000 for a tennis match with Johnson and £135,000 for a night out with former Prime Minister Theresa May.... The committee looked into donations from nine Russian sources.... Johnson blocked the report [by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee about potential Russian interference in recent UK elections], which was set to be published before the election campaign, because of fears that the information would damage his chance of winning the UK general election next month, sources told The Times." --s