Even the conservative news aggregation site Drudge Report, normally an influential and sympathetic voice toward the president, ran the headline: “Trump hell hour.” NBC News anchor Chuck Todd called it perhaps “the most consequential day of the Trump presidency — yet.” What does the Cohen plea mean for Trump? Well, the plea agreement with the prosecutors in Manhattan does not require … Read More
Breaking: Michael Cohen Enters Plea Deal With Prosecutors [UPDATE: Manafort Jury Finds Manafort Guilty on 8 Counts]
pic.twitter.com/O8Myfxnt3W — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 21, 2018 Later today, we should have a better idea of the terms of the deal. The most significant part of his plea deal, expected to be told in court today at 4 pm (SDNY), will be the terms of the campaign finance plea. Do they implicate/leave room for misconduct by the Trump … Read More
From Here To November: Buckle Up
Paul Waldman wrote yesterday that the next eleven weeks are going to be decisive for the Trump presidency. He notes first that Michael Cohen appears to either be on the cusp of indictment or cooperation and that could spell all kinds of new headaches for Trump both politically and legally. He’s already been proved right about that…. BREAKING: @MichaelCohen212 has reached a … Read More
Truth Isn’t Truth And The Weekend Of Trumpism
Orwellian… It’s very hard to comment on this. What you’re thinking is what everyone is saying. Bizarre, Orwellian, insane. But there was so much more this weekend. Lord knows we could use some more civic education in our country, and so I’m delighted that the President has suggested we study the McCarthy era more closely. But the parallel won’t work … Read More
Document Dump: Statement Of 12 Top Former Intelligence Officials
It’s actually 12 now, because Leon Peneta signed on this morning. The denunciations came in two waves. Earlier yesterday, retired Adm. William McRaven wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, protesting Trump’s revoking of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance and declaring—as if in an open letter to Trump himself—“I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as … Read More
Trump Campaign NDAs Might Be Invalid
Unless they deal with keeping classified information secure, government NDAs that extend beyond the scope one one’s employment are probably invalid as a matter of law. But what about the NDAs signed with the Trump campaign (the one in 2016 or the one for 2020)? That’s a tougher question. Or maybe not. A Manhattan judge issued a ruling on Thursday … Read More
Breaking: Trump Revoking Security Clearance Of Former CIA Director John Brennan
The Hill: President Trump on Wednesday revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. “As the head of the executive branch and the commander and chief, I have a unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it,” Trump said in a statement, read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Wednesday’s press … Read More
Manafort Trial In Closing Arguments
I don’t think the Manafort trial is all that interesting. I mean, it only has a bearing on the Mueller investigation IF Manafort is found guilty, and IF he foregoes a lengthy appeal and IF he then makes a deal with Mueller that implicates Trump or talks about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians… and none of those things are … Read More
He’s Unhinged
Nobody is even trying to calm him down. Many many tweets about the Mueller probe (Agent Strzok), one misogynist/racist tweet calling Omarosa a “dog”, and ONE having to do with world affairs (a terrorist attack in London). One of these days, he will spell “counsel” right consistently (he got it correct with the Lou Dobbs tweet, but not the Judicial … Read More
They Have To Explain Time Zones To Our “Very Stable Genius President”
Politico’s Daniel Lippman rounds up several harrowing new details of Trump’s attempts to interact with world leaders. Trump’s shortcomings as a global strategist include, but are not limited to, the following areas: Knowing all the countries. Maps indicate the world contains a bunch of countries whose existence Trump was never made aware of previously. “Trump appeared confused by Nepal and Bhutan, which … Read More
Strzok Fired
This isn’t news. Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence agent who came under withering criticism from Republicans for a series of anti-Trump text messages he sent during the 2016 campaign, was fired on Friday, his attorney said. According to Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, an internal disciplinary review had recommended Strzok’s demotion and a 60-day suspension. But Goelman said Monday that the … Read More
Document Dump: Yes, Mueller’s Investigation Is Constitutional
That’s now four different DC district judges who have rejected this long-shot argument in one form or another… It was a stupid argument to begin with — hopefully this will put it to bed forever.
“Unite The Right 2” Weekend
A lot of ink and video was spilled this weekend covering the Unite The Right 2 event in DC and Charlottesville, one year after all the Nazis went to Charlottesville to have their tiki torch march. This year was pretty pathetic, as about 18 alt-right Nazis showed up in Washington, heavily protected by police against the literally thousands who went … Read More
Do I REALLY Have To Write A Post About Omarosa And Her Inside Scoop (Book) About The Trump White House, A Job For Which She Was Remarkably Unqualified, And That’s A Pretty Low Bar To Begin With?
No. Okay, fine…. #Breaking: @OMAROSA provides @NBCNews with this exclusive excerpt of a recording of a phone call that she says she received from President Trump the day after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her. pic.twitter.com/OJe47RdcDC — TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 13, 2018 UPDATE… Yeah, even Trump can’t leave it alone…. Here he is saying that Omarosa (a senior … Read More
Nunes Admits That He’s An Accomplice In Protecting Trump From Mueller Probe
Greg Sargent has a nice concise write-up: Last night, Rachel Maddow reported on leaked audio of Rep. Devin Nunes, who is perhaps President Trump’s staunchest bodyguard against accountability on Capitol Hill, in which he candidly revealed that Republicans hope to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein after the elections. Nunes is already leading such an impeachment drive — which … Read More