May 20, 2017

TRUMP GOES ABROAD AS INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN TO HEAT UP.

You will be shocked and appalled to learn that Donald Trump said some stuff to some Russians that he probably shouldn’t have.
President Trump met with Russian officials at the White House last week. American journalists were barred, but Russia released photographs. Russian Foreign Ministry

The New York Times reports that President Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (to whom he also famously leaked classified intel about ISIS), "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I face great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." [NYT / Matt Apuzzo, Maggie Haberman, and Matthew Rosenberg] 
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Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, failed to mention having met with the Russian ambassador and the head of a Russian bank when applying for national security clearance. Al Drago/The New York Times
  • The Post didn’t specify who this person is, but speculation immediately turned to Jared Kushner, who failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials in his security clearance paperwork. [NYT / Jo Becker and Matthew Rosenberg] 
  • Another sign it might be Kushner: Apparently the White House is considering invoking an obscure ethics rule that would bar special prosecutor Robert Mueller from investigating clients of his firm (WilmerHale). Those clients include Paul Manafort and … Jared Kushner. [Reuters / Julia Edwards Ainsley] 
  • In interpreting this, keep in mind that "person of interest" has no specific legal meaning and doesn't necessarily mean "suspect." This doesn't mean Jared Kushner or anybody else is about to be indicted, or suspected of criminal misconduct. But it’s, uh, not good. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp] 
  • Trump’s comments to the Russians could also provide ammo if he’s eventually accused of obstruction of justice. They lend credibility to the idea that he fired Comey to impede the investigation into collusion with Russia during the campaign. [Washington Post / Aaron Blake] 
  • Indeed, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told senators that the investigation has been expanded to include looking into a possible cover-up — and that this expansion happened because of reports that Trump ordered Comey to scuttle an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. [McClatchy / Matthew Schofield and Lesley Clark] 

KEVIN LAMARQUE

  • CNN is reporting that the White House's legal team has begun researching impeachment procedures to prepare for the possibility that Congress might try to remove Trump. [CNN / Evan Perez] 
  • At this point, we mostly need to wait. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller has expansive powers to indict White House officials and other figures he thinks have committed criminal offenses, but if indictments come, it won’t be for a little while at least.
  • But we could also learn a lot when James Comey testifies before an open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing — as he has agreed to do, shortly after Memorial Day.. [Washington Post] 
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Trump to 'strongly protect American interests' on tour
President Donald Trump has departed on a five-stop diplomacy tour through Europe and the Middle East that will cover 15,600 miles in the air over the course of nine days. The president, the first lady Melania Trump, Chief of staff Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner, and Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, left the White House aboard Marine One... The first couple stopped and waved as they boarded Air Force One. They are currently on a 12-hour flight to Saudi Arabia. The last four U.S. presidents kept their first international voyages confined to North America. Not so for Trump. He will deliver a high-stakes speech about Islam in the heart of Saudi Arabia, meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nemesis Mahmoud Abbas and take in an audience with Pope Francis. And that's before a NATO summit and a meeting of the G7 leaders. 

Presidential trips abroad are difficult and unpredictable even under the best circumstances...And harder still when the president doesn’t have a lot of key regional or national security staff with him, and doesn’t really listen to the ones he does have. [CNN / Jake Tapper] 
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Despite Trump’s brooding and desperation to turn the page, the truth is that he doesn’t really want to go on this trip. “In recent days, Mr. Trump has groused to several friends that he is not looking forward to leaving his new White House cocoon,” Maggie Haberman and Mike Shear report in the New York Times. “At one point, he barked at an aide that he thought his first tour abroad should be only about half as long. He will have to abandon his well-known preference for sleeping in his own bed (or in one at the hotels or golf resorts he owns) as he hops between … places without a Trump-branded property. … In private, Mr. Trump’s advisers acknowledge that they are concerned about his off-script eruptions, his tendency to be swayed by flattery and the possibility that foreign leaders may present him with situations he does not know how to handle. They worry he will accidentally commit the United States to something unexpected, and they have tried to caution him about various scenarios.”

-- The domestic drama Trump has created threatens to cloud his overseas trip and complicate his conversations with foreign leaders. Michael Birnbaum reports from Brussels: “Washington’s closest allies in Europe are increasingly worried that rising political chaos in the United States is undermining the strength of the most powerful nation in the world. In conversations with more than two dozen current and former European ministers, lawmakers, diplomats, intelligence officials and military officers in recent days, there was a common theme: …. Many fear that mounting domestic scandals could sap Washington’s ability to respond to challenges ranging from Russia to terrorism to North Korea.”

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Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Anthony Weiner pled guilty to “sexting” with a minor in federal court today. The New York Times’ Benjamin Weiser and William K. Rashbaum report: “Mr. Weiner [pled] guilty to a single charge of transferring obscene material to a minor, pursuant to a plea agreement with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan … The federal authorities have been investigating reports that, beginning in January 2016, Mr. Weiner, then 51, exchanged sexually explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.”  Prosecutors are recommending a two-year prison sentence. He also will have to register as a sex offender. He was released on bail and will be sentenced on September 8, four days after his 53rd birthday. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4522532/Anthony-Weiner-guilty-transferring-obscene-material.html#ixzz4hbGb6gOw
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