Washington Post: Trump’s Hardline Immigration Rhetoric Runs into Obstacles — Including Trump

By David Nakamura:

The Trump administration’s attempts to translate the president’s hard-line campaign rhetoric on immigration into reality have run into two major roadblocks: the complexity of reshaping a sprawling immigration system and a president who has not been clear about how he wants to change it.

In his first four weeks in office, President Trump has sought to use his executive powers to punch through Washington’s legislative and bureaucratic hurdles and make quick progress on pledges to crack down on illegal immigrants and tighten border control.

But Trump has been vague about his goals and how to achieve them and his aides have struggled to interpret his orders.

The resulting turmoil has included a successful legal challenge halting his immigration travel ban, fears among congressional Republicans over the White House’s more extreme measures and widespread anxiety among immigrant communities across the country.

The latest flash point erupted Friday over reports that the Department of Homeland Security was considering mobilizing 100,000 National Guard troops to help round up millions of unauthorized immigrants in 11 states, including some such as Colorado and Oregon far from the southern border.

The disclosure surprised state officials who oversee the troops and rattled immigrant rights advocates, who have accused federal authorities of exploiting fuzzy White House edicts to frighten vulnerable populations. Trump aides quickly distanced the White House from a memo that federal authorities called a “very early draft” of an implementation plan for Trump’s early executive orders that had not been seen or approved by DHS Secretary John Kelly.

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

Think Progress: Trump Knew Flynn Talked Sanctions With Russia, But Didn’t Tell Pence

By Aaron Rupar:

Citing an unnamed source, Fox reports that “Trump was given a comprehensive summary of the contents of his former-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s phone calls with the Russian ambassador prior to Flynn’s resignation.” White House officials haven’t told a consistent story about whether Flynn resigned or was fired.

* * *

Fox’s report indicates Trump knew Flynn was meddling in the Obama administration’s foreign policy but kept him on staff and gave him access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets anyway — without telling Pence.

During a news conference Thursday, Trump characterized Flynn’s departure as a firing. He said he dismissed Flynn not because of what he did, but because he didn’t initially tell Pence the truth about his communications with Russia.

“I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence,” Trump said. But the Fox report indicates Trump also did not tell Pence the truth.

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

Washington Post: Scott Pruitt, Longtime Adversary of EPA, Confirmed to Lead the Agency

By Brady Dennis:

Scott Pruitt woke up Friday morning as Oklahoma’s attorney general, a post he had used for six years to repeatedly sue the Environmental Protection Agency for its efforts to regulate mercury, smog and other forms of pollution. By day’s end, he had been sworn in as the agency’s new leader, setting off a struggle over what the EPA will become in the Trump era.

Pruitt begins what is likely to be a controversial tenure with a clear set of goals. He has been outspoken in his view, widely shared by Republicans, that the EPA zealously overstepped its legal authority under President Barack Obama, saddling the fossil-fuel industry with unnecessary and onerous regulations.

* * *

“Scott Pruitt as administrator of the EPA likely means a full-scale assault on the protections that Americans have enjoyed for clean air, clean water and a healthy climate,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in an interview. “For environmental groups, it means we’re in for the fight of our lives for the next four years.”

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

CNN: Full Transcript [of] President Donald Trump's News Conference

By CNN:

But much of it is not a - the distortion -- and we'll talk about it, you'll be able to ask me questions about it. But we're not going to let it happen, because I'm here again, to take my message straight to the people. As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The middle east is a disaster. North Korea - we'll take care of it folks; we're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.

Beginning on day one, our administration went to work to tackle these challenges. On foreign affairs, we've already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. We have had great conversations with the United Kingdom, and meetings. Israel, Mexico, Japan, China and Canada, really, really productive conversations. I would say far more productive than you would understand.

We've even developed a new council with Canada to promote women's business leaders and entrepreneurs. It's very important to me, very important to my daughter Ivanka. I have directed our defense community headed by our great general, now Secretary Mattis. He's over there now working very hard to submit a plan for the defeat of ISIS, a group that celebrates the murder and torture of innocent people in large sections of the world. It used to be a small group, now it's in large sections of the world.

* * *

I'm here following through on what I pledged to do. That's all I'm doing. I put it out before the American people, got 306 electoral college votes. I wasn't supposed to get 222. They said there's no way to get 222, 230's impossible.

270 which you need, that was laughable. We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before so that's the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. In other words, the media's trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made and they're not happy about it for whatever reason.

And - but a lot of people are happy about it. In fact, I'll be in Melbourne, Florida five o'clock on Saturday and I heard - just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there. I turn on the T.V., open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my cabinet approved.

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

Progressive: Trump’s Timeline with Russia: Stranger Than Fiction

By Jud Lounsbury:

1997—Trump seeks to erect a huge statue within viewing distance of the Statue of Liberty; it would have stood forty-five-feet taller than the beloved Mother of Exiles. The gift would be from Russia by an artist Trump assured everyone was "major and legit" and would literally overshadow Lady Liberty, with an enormous likeness of the polar opposite of everything that the Statue of Liberty represents: Christopher "Genocidal Maniac" Columbus.

2003-06—Donald Trump Jr. travels extensively to Russia.

2007—Trump visits Russia again.

2008—Donald Trump Jr. tells a real-estate conference, in reference to the Trump business empire: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” He added, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

2013—Donald Trump brags about an after-party that was held when he brought the Miss Universe contest to Moscow, saying, “The Russian market is attracted to me. Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.”

December 2015—Vladimir Putin compliments "talented" Trump and says he is "absolutely the leader in the presidential race." Trump responds, "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond."

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: Flynn in FBI Interview Denied Discussing Sanctions With Russian Ambassador

By Sari Horwitz and Adam Entous:

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said.

The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy. Lying to the FBI is a felony offense. But several officials said it is unclear whether prosecutors would attempt to bring a case, in part because Flynn may parse the definition of the word “sanctions.” He also followed his denial to the FBI by saying he couldn’t recall all of the conversation, officials said.

* * *

Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak following Trump’s election and denied for weeks that the December conversation involved sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia in response to its purported meddling in the U.S. election. Flynn’s denial to the FBI was similar to what he had told Trump’s advisers, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Rolling Stone: Trump's Repeal of Bipartisan Anti-Corruption Measure Proves He's a Fake

By Matt Taibbi:

Among the measures proposed: new restrictions on lobbying, including a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after leaving office.

Months later, with the self-proclaimed "existential threat" to special interests in office, the "establishment" has it better than ever. Not only has the money-over-principle dynamic not changed inside the Beltway, it's ascendant. Under "outsider" rule, Washington has never been more Washington-y.

Tuesday, for instance, Trump signed a repeal of a bipartisan provision of the Dodd-Frank bill known as the Cardin-Lugar Amendment. The absurd history of this doomed provision stands as a perfect microcosm of how Washington works, or doesn't work, as it were.

The election of a billionaire president who killed the anti-corruption measure off is only the brutal coup de grace. The rule was stalled for the better part of six years by a relentless and exhausting parade of lobbyists, lawyers and other assorted Beltway malingerers. It then lived out of the womb for a few sad months before Trump smothered it this week.

* * *

Ask Trump supporters about this episode, and many would say they won't weep for the loss of any government regulation.

But they should ask themselves if, when they were whooping and hollering for the man who promised to end special interest and lobbyist rules in Washington, they imagined the ExxonMobil chief in charge of the State Department cheering as the new president wiped out anti-bribery laws. The "establishment" sure is on the run, isn't it?

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: When Governing Beckons, Trump Keeps Campaigning

By Karen Tumulty:

“The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, and so badly (306), so they made up a story — RUSSIA. Fake news!” Trump tweeted Thursday, noting in parentheses the number of electoral votes he won in November.

The president brought up his electoral vote total again later in the day at a combative news conference, where he claimed — falsely — that his was “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.” In fact, of the presidents since Reagan, only George W. Bush won fewer electoral votes than Trump did last year. Trump also made 12 references to Hillary Clinton during the 1 hour and 17 minute news conference.

Trump shows little interest in a growing pile of evidence that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the election. And he doesn’t seem curious about whether those who worked for him had improper contact with Russian agents.

Instead, he is accusing the intelligence community of disclosing information without authorization, and blaming the news media for harping on it.

His priorities worry those who see in Russia’s behavior as a real threat to U.S. security — not only last year, but also going forward.

“The focus can’t be on leaks. The focus can’t be on Hillary [Clinton]. The focus has to be on what happened,” said Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served in senior positions under the past three Republican presidents. “He’s got to use this to clean house, and to essentially reboot his administration.”

The chaos, Haass added, “is both a cause and a symptom of a governing crisis.”

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: The 8 Craziest Moments Of Trump’s Impromptu Press Conference

By Allegra Kirkland:

3. “The leaks are absolutely real; the news is fake”

Trump said that the leaks about his private phone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were “illegal” and allowing people to find out “exactly what took place.” Yet he also repeatedly claimed that the news reports based on those leaks is “fake, because so much of the news is fake.”

* * *

6. “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you have seen in your entire life”

Trump accused a Jewish reporter who asked how his administration planned to address anti-Semitic threats of being unfriendly, told him to be “quiet,” and said he found his question “repulsive.”

* * *

8. “Are they friends of yours?”

Questioned by April Ryan, a veteran reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, on whether he would include the Congressional Black Caucus in his plans to revitalize black urban neighborhoods, Trump replied, “Are they friends of yours? Set up the meeting.”

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Family’s Elaborate Lifestyle is a ‘Logistical Nightmare’ — at Taxpayer Expense

By Drew Harwell, Amy Brittain and Jonathan O'Connell:

On Friday, President Trump and his entourage will jet for the third straight weekend to a working getaway at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.

On Saturday, Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr., with their Secret Service details in tow, will be nearly 8,000 miles away in the United Arab Emirates, attending the grand opening of a Trump-brand golf resort in the “Beverly Hills of Dubai.”

Meanwhile, New York police will keep watch outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, the chosen home of first lady Melania Trump and son Barron. And the tiny township of Bedminster, N.J., is preparing for the daunting prospect that the local Trump golf course will serve as a sort of northern White House for as many as 10 weekends a year.

Barely a month into the Trump presidency, the unusually elaborate lifestyle of America’s new first family is straining the Secret Service and security officials, stirring financial and logistical concerns in several local communities, and costing far beyond what has been typical for past presidents — a price tag that, based on past assessments of presidential travel and security costs, could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a four-year term.

Adding to the costs and complications is Trump’s inclination to conduct official business surrounded by crowds of people, such as his decision last weekend to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a working dinner while Mar-a-Lago members dined nearby.

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Claims He ‘Inherited a Mess’ at Sprawling, Grievance-filled News Conference

By Ashley Parker and John Wagner:

Trump also made clear that he had no problem with Flynn discussing with the Russian ambassador the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the Obama administration, saying it was Flynn’s job to reach out to foreign officials.

“No, I didn’t direct him, but I would have directed him if he didn’t do it,” Trump said.

Asked several times about reports in the New York Times and on CNN that his campaign had repeated contacts with Russia, including senior intelligence officials, Trump grew testy as reporters pushed him for a yes or no answer.

He said that he personally had not had contact and that he was not aware of such contacts during the campaign.

“Russia is a ruse,” Trump said. “I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. Not that I wouldn’t. I just have nobody to speak to.”

Trump’s general defense of Russia stood in contrast to comments that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made at a NATO meeting Thursday in Brussels, where he said that there was “very little doubt” that the Russians have either interfered or attempted to interfere with elections in democratic nations.

Thursday’s news conference was ostensibly billed as a chance for Trump to announce Alexander Acosta as his new nominee for labor secretary. If confirmed, Acosta would be the first Latino in Trump’s Cabinet.

But for 77 minutes, the president offered the verbal equivalent of the brash and impetuous early-morning tweets that have become the alarm clock for much of Washington. He took aim at topics including the recent controversies over Russia, which he dismissed, and the “criminal leaks” within the intelligence community. Although he inherited a growing economy, low inflation and low unemployment, he repeatedly portrayed a country in shambles under President Barack Obama.

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: Andrew Puzder Withdraws Labor Nomination, Throwing White House Into More Turmoil

By Ed O'Keefe and Jonnelle Marte:

Andrew Puzder, President Trump’s labor secretary nominee, withdrew from consideration Wednesday amid growing resistance from Senate Republicans centered primarily on Puzder’s past employment of an undocumented housekeeper.

The collapse of Puzder’s nomination threw the White House into further turmoil just two days after the resignation of Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, amid revelations that ­Flynn had spoken repeatedly, and possibly illegally, with the Russian ambassador last year about lifting U.S. sanctions.

Puzder’s fate amplified the deteriorating relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill, where bipartisan support grew Wednesday for expanded investigations into ties between Trump, his presidential campaign and Russian officials.

The White House, including Trump, offered no comment on Puzder’s withdrawal nor any indication of whom the president would nominate in the restaurant executive’s place. Puzder issued a statement saying he was “honored” to have been nominated. “While I won’t be serving in the administration, I fully support the President and his highly qualified team,” he said.

A top Trump campaign supporter, Puzder had attracted widespread criticism regarding his business record and personal background. He was set to testify Thursday at a confirmation hearing that had been delayed for weeks to allow for the completion of an ethics review of his vast personal wealth.


But it was Puzder’s hiring of an undocumented worker for domestic work — as well as his support for more liberalized immigration policies — that pushed several Senate Republicans away, they said.

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: Trump And The White House Aren’t On The Same Page On Flynn’s Ouster

By Esme Cribb:

On Wednesday, Trump launched a broadside against one of his favorite targets: the media.

He called Flynn “a wonderful man” during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and blamed the press for treating Flynn “so badly.”

“I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it the fake media, in many cases, and I think it is really a sad thing he was treated so badly,” the President said. “I think that it is very, very unfair what’s happened to General Flynn.”

Trump’s comments stood in stark contrast to his spokesman’s explanation for Flynn’s departure. On Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that Trump asked Flynn to resign “based on a trust issue” rather than any media treatment.

“The President was very concerned that General Flynn had misled the vice president and others,” Spicer said. “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the President to ask for General Flynn’s resignation.”

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Steps Back From U.S. Commitment to Two-State Israeli-Palestinian Solution

By Anne Gearan and Ruth Eglash:

In his most extensive remarks as president about the chances for peace in the Middle East, Trump said he “could live with” either a separate Palestinian state or a unitary state as a peaceful outcome.

“I want the one that both parties want,” he said.

[Trump says he really wants Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, warns both sides to ‘act reasonably’]

That is a significant departure from past U.S. policy supporting the goal of an independent Palestine. Republican and Democratic presidents have backed a future Palestine on West Bank land that is now under Israeli military occupation. For years, U.S. officials have endorsed “two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security” as a matter of course.

“I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit,” Trump said as he welcomed Netanyahu for their first meeting since the Republican president took office. “We’ll work something out,” he added.

The new U.S. president confidently predicted that he will help broker an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I would like to see a deal be made. I think a deal will be made,” Trump said. “I know that every president would like to. Most of them have not started until late, because they never thought it was possible. And it wasn’t possible, because they didn’t do it.”

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: Flynn Doesn’t Matter. This Is About Trump.

By Josh Marshall:

Step back for a second and look at this. While certainties are hard to come by, it seems clear that Russia broke into computer networks and selectively released private emails to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. When President Obama took a series of actions to punish the Russian government for this interference, President-Elect Trump’s top foreign policy advisor made a series of calls to the Russian government’s representative in the United States to ask him to have his government refrain from retaliation and suggested that the punishments could be lifted once the new government was sworn in. Then he lied about the calls both publicly and apparently within the White House. What has gotten lost in this discussion is that these questionable calls were aimed at blunting the punishment meted out for the election interference that helped Donald Trump become President. This is mind-boggling.

Consider another point.

Through the course of the campaign, transition and presidency, three top Trump advisors and staffers have had to resign because of issues tied to Russia. Paul Manafort, Carter Page and now Michael Flynn. Page might arguably be termed a secondary figure. Manafort ran Trump’s campaign and Flynn was his top foreign policy advisor for a year. The one common denominator between all these events, all these men is one person: Donald Trump.

As I said above, this has all been happening before our eyes, the train of inexplicable actions, the unaccountable ties and monetary connections, the willful, almost inexplicable need to make the case for Vladimir Putin even when the President knows the suspicion he’s under. When I was writing my first post on this topic more than 6 months ago, I had the uncanny feeling of finding what I was writing impossible to believe as I wrote it. And yet, I would go through the list of unexplained occurrences and actions, clear business and political connections, sycophantic support and more and realize there was too much evidence to ignore. It was fantastical and yet in plain sight.

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

Think Progress: Trump Passes on Opportunity to Denounce Anti-Semitic Violence

By Aaron Rupar:

During his joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, President Trump was asked how he would respond to those concerned that his administration promotes racism.

“Mr. President, since your election campaign and after your victory, we’ve seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States,” a journalist asked. “And I wonder what you say to those among the Jewish community in Israel, around the world, who believe that your administration is playing with xenophobia and racist tones?”

Trump responded by talking about one of his favorite subjects — his electoral college victory over Hillary Clinton.

“Well, I just want to say that we are very honored by the victory that we had,” Trump began. “Three hundred and six electoral college votes — we were not supposed to crack 220 — you know that, right? There was no way to 221, but then they said there’s no way to 270. And there’s tremendous enthusiasm out there.”

Trump then promised that to bring peace and stop crime and suggested that whatever racism exists in America isn’t his responsibility.

“We are going to have peace in this country,” he said. “We are going to stop crime in this country. We are going to do everything within our power to stop simmering racism and every other thing that’s going on. A lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time.”

Trump concluded offering bromides about how he hopes he’ll “be able to do something” about how divided the country is, and mentioned the fact that his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kusher, and their children are Jewish.

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

CNN: Ethics Office [Says] White House Should Investigate Conway for Ivanka Trump Plug

By Jill Disis:

The Office of Government Ethics is recommending that the White House take disciplinary action against Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to President Trump, for endorsing Ivanka Trump's products in a TV interview.

Walter Shaub, the director of the ethics office, wrote in a letter to the White House that there is "strong reason to believe" Conway violated ethics standards and that disciplinary action is warranted. He suggested that the White House open an investigation.

Shaub likened what Conway did to appearing in a TV commercial.

Conway gave the endorsement on Fox News Channel last week, one day after the president attacked the Nordstrom department store chain for treating his daughter unfairly. Nordstrom has said it dropped her line of clothing and accessories because they weren't selling well.

"Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would tell you," Conway told Fox News. "It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I fully -- I'm going to just, I'm going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online."

Shaub sent the letter to the White House after a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee asked the agency to look into Conway.

The Full Story (February 14, 2017)

[Special] New York Times: Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation

By Michael S. Schmidt:

President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The documentation of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. Late Tuesday, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the F.B.I. turn over all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey.

Such documents, Mr. Chaffetz wrote, would “raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede” the F.B.I.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. It was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, replying only: “I agree he is a good guy.”

The Full Story (May 16, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: Flynn Doesn’t Matter. This Is About Trump.

By Josh Marshall:

Step back for a second and look at this. While certainties are hard to come by, it seems clear that Russia broke into computer networks and selectively released private emails to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. When President Obama took a series of actions to punish the Russian government for this interference, President-Elect Trump’s top foreign policy advisor made a series of calls to the Russian government’s representative in the United States to ask him to have his government refrain from retaliation and suggested that the punishments could be lifted once the new government was sworn in. Then he lied about the calls both publicly and apparently within the White House. What has gotten lost in this discussion is that these questionable calls were aimed at blunting the punishment meted out for the election interference that helped Donald Trump become President. This is mind-boggling.

Consider another point.

Through the course of the campaign, transition and presidency, three top Trump advisors and staffers have had to resign because of issues tied to Russia. Paul Manafort, Carter Page and now Michael Flynn. Page might arguably be termed a secondary figure. Manafort ran Trump’s campaign and Flynn was his top foreign policy advisor for a year. The one common denominator between all these events, all these men is one person: Donald Trump.

As I said above, this has all been happening before our eyes, the train of inexplicable actions, the unaccountable ties and monetary connections, the willful, almost inexplicable need to make the case for Vladimir Putin even when the President knows the suspicion he’s under. When I was writing my first post on this topic more than 6 months ago, I had the uncanny feeling of finding what I was writing impossible to believe as I wrote it. And yet, I would go through the list of unexplained occurrences and actions, clear business and political connections, sycophantic support and more and realize there was too much evidence to ignore. It was fantastical and yet in plain sight.

The Full Story (February 14, 2017)

New York Times: Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

By Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo: 

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.

But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public.

The Full Story (February 14, 2017)

See Also from the New York Times, Flynn’s Downfall Sprang From ‘Eroding Level of Trust’ which describes the FBI interrogation of Flynn. 

Washington Post: Justice Department Warned White House That Flynn Could be Vulnerable to Russian Blackmail, Officials Say

By Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Philip Rucker:

The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.

The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that ­Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the ­Russian diplomat, had told Vice ­President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the ­information.

Flynn resigned Monday night in the wake of revelations about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

In the waning days of the Obama administration, James R. Clapper Jr., who was the director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, shared Yates’s concerns and concurred with her recommendation to inform the Trump White House. They feared that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position” and thought that Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, according to one of the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

A senior Trump administration official said before Flynn’s resignation that the White House was aware of the matter, adding that “we’ve been working on this for weeks.”

The current and former officials said that although they believed that Pence was misled about the contents of Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador, they couldn’t rule out that Flynn was acting with the knowledge of others in the transition.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

Belly of the Beast: Praising Stephen Miller? Seriously?

By Stephen J. Harper:

“Congratulations Stephen Miller – on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!” Trump tweeted, as the world pondered North Korea’s missile test.

Question: What had the 31-year-old Miller — a non-lawyer who had been Jeff Sessions’ communications director before joining the Trump campaign — done to deserve such praise from his boss?

Answer: Betray a tragic ignorance of the U.S. Constitution while continuing Trump’s assault on the judiciary.

* * *

“There’s no such thing as judicial supremacy,” Miller told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

“The judiciary is not supreme,” he said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” Miller explained to CBS’s John Dickerson. Then came his most chilling line: “The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

That’s third world dictator-type rhetoric coming from a top presidential adviser. No competent attorney who cared about the U.S. Constitution could have vetted Miller’s talking points. Judicial review and the power of federal judges to invalidate unconstitutional executive and legislative actions date to the early years of the republic.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

(Editor's Note: I added a new tag "judiciary," which is long overdue given Trump's inclination to war with Judges. I may go back and edit the tag into earlier posts.)

Think Progress: Michael Flynn is Still National Security Adviser. Why?

By Ned Resnikoff:

As of Monday, February 13, Michael Flynn is still President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.

Flynn remains in this position even though the Washington Post revealed on February 9 that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with a Russian diplomat prior to Trump’s inauguration — something Flynn, other administration officials, and even Vice President Mike Pence have all personally denied.

Now the White House is no longer denying it. In fact, after the Post published its report, an administration source told the press that Pence had “based his comments on his conversation with Gen. Flynn.”

* * *

Nonetheless, Michael Flynn remains the National Security Adviser. The president has yet to even issue a public defense or condemnation of his chief national security aide. Multiple news outlets published articles Monday about Flynn’s “tenuous” position and the “growing pressure” he faces, but thus far he remains an employee of the Trump administration.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

Washington Post: Senate Confirms Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary

By Max Ehrenfreund:

The Senate confirmed Steven T. Mnuchin as treasury secretary Monday evening, putting an end to a contentious and protracted debate while adding another former banker to President Trump's roster of advisers.

Mnuchin ran a bank, OneWest, that foreclosed on tens of thousands of Americans amid the financial crisis, and Democrats had argued that he would not represent the financial interests of ordinary Americans in office. Mnuchin and his allies said OneWest's foreclosures were largely in accordance with federal guidelines.

As treasury secretary, Mnuchin will be responsible for managing the nation's day-to-day finances and will have to carry out a broad order from his new boss to review the rules imposed on the financial sector through the Dodd-Frank law of 2010. Also, he'll oversee a report to Congress on whether foreign countries are manipulating their currencies, due in April.

Beyond these immediate tasks, Mnuchin will confront broader questions, assuming an influential position in a new administration that has not clearly signaled how the president will approach the economy. The agenda that Republican lawmakers and several of Trump's advisers favor — tax relief, deregulation and limited economic intervention by the federal government — is in some respects at odds with Trump's populist and protectionist rhetoric, especially on whether the government will impose new barriers to global trade.

Mnuchin, a Hollywood financier and a former partner at Goldman Sachs, will join several other former bankers with senior positions in Trump's administration, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. The White House's reliance on Wall Street in staffing the administration has drawn criticism from Democrats.

“For someone who pledged to drain the swamp and advocate for working people, President Trump’s nomination of Mr. Mnuchin to be Secretary of the Treasury amounts to another broken promise,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the former vice-presidential candidate, said in a statement. “His complicity in the 2008 financial crisis raises serious doubts.”

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

The Atlantic: Donald Trump and the Art of the Apology

By Michelle Cottle:

For a guy who largely treats words as meaningless, Trump is notably fixated on the ritual value of apologies––from other people, that is. He and his team are constantly calling on this person or that group to express contrition for some perceived offense. Trump isn’t much concerned about the sincerity of a mea culpa or the spirit in which it is offered. If anything, a grudging, coerced apology seems to delight him even more than a wholly voluntary one.

For Trump, apologies aren’t about resolving conflict or fostering relationships or even setting the record straight. Like so much of what he does, they are about besting someone. Trump expresses his displeasure at how he has been treated; the offending party feels compelled to make amends. An apology that requires threats or twitter trolls to extract only highlights Trump’s superior strength all the more. Your criticisms of Trump may not have been wrong. You may not feel one bit bad about them. You may loathe and disdain him even more after apologizing. What matters to him is that you have had to publicly ask for his forgiveness. Which proves you are a total loser.

Just last week, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was all over Senator John McCain to apologize for saying that the January 28 raid in Yemen that Trump ordered––which resulted in the death of one Navy SEAL, the wounding of three others, the loss of a $70 million helicopter, and multiple civilian casualties—was not a success. For some reason, McCain irritably declined.

Not infrequently, Trump, in one of his signature Twitter fits, will call for an apology on behalf of a third party. He memorably demanded that the cast of Hamilton apologize for booing Mike Pence, that MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski apologize to a Trump supporter with whom she clashed on air, and that Pakistan apologize to the U.S. for harboring Osama bin Laden all those years.

Far more often, though, Trump is seeking an apology for Trump. The legions he has called on for apologies include, but are by no means limited to, CNN’s Jim Acosta, the New York Times, the intelligence community, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Wall Street Journal, Megyn Kelly, Fox News, National Review’s Rich Lowry, former Mexican president Vicente Fox, Carly Fiorina, Univision, ABC’s Tom Llamas, and Hillary Clinton. At this point, pretty much all of the mainstream media has a standing order from the White House to apologize for everything it does.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

[Special] Washington Post: Trump Revealed Highly Classified Information to Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador

By Greg Miller and Greg Jaffe:

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said that Trump’s decision to do so risks cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The revelation comes as Trump faces rising legal and political pressure on multiple Russia-related fronts. Last week, he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in the midst of a bureau investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Trump’s subsequent admission that his decision was driven by “this Russia thing” was seen by critics as attempted obstruction of justice.

The Full Story (May 15, 2017)

Washington Post: A White House Where No One is in Charge

By Michael Gerson:

Trump has run a family business but never a large organization. Nor has he seen such an organization as an employee. “Trump,” says another former official, “is ill-suited to appreciate the importance of a coherent chain of command and decision-making process. On the contrary, his instincts run instead toward multiple mini power centers, which rewards competing aggressively for Trump’s favor.”

This seems to be the dynamic unfolding on the weekend political talk shows. These have traditionally been venues for an administration to communicate with media and political elites (whose religion dedicates Sunday morning to the gods of policy, scandal and pith). But Trump surrogates are clearly appealing to a different audience: an audience of one, who may well tweet them a nice pat on the back. The goal — as Miller demonstrated over the weekend — is not to persuade or even explain. It is to confidently repeat Trump’s most absurd or unsubstantiated claims from the previous week. This time it was electorally decisive voter fraud in New Hampshire (for which there is no evidence). Next weekend it could be the harm done by vaccination, or the possible murder of Antonin Scalia (both of which Trump has raised in the past). It is the main function of Trump surrogates to restate Trump’s “alternative facts” in a steady voice.

It is hard for me (and everyone else outside the White House) to know exactly what is going on in the West Wing. Leaks may provide a distorted picture. But, in this case, there have been an awful lot of them, clearly from the highest levels. And they uniformly reveal a management structure and culture in which the highest goal is not to display competence or to display creativity but to display loyalty, defined as sucking up. The philosophy of competing power centers has, indeed, produced terrible dysfunction, distraction, disloyalty and leaks. Trump’s failed and frightening executive order on immigration is exhibit A. But now the National Security Council seems to be in a full-scale crisis of purpose, thoroughly demoralized and trying to discern American policy from presidential tweets. With the real NSC badly weakened by the travails of the national security adviser, it seems that Bannon is developing a shadow NSC to serve his well-developed nationalist agenda.

The president may thrive in chaos, but the presidency does not. A president needs aides who will give him honest information and analysis, not compete for his favor. This may even involve checking a president’s mistaken instincts. There will always be competing power centers in the West Wing. But the White House runs best when there is, according to a former White House official, “a strong chief of staff, empowered by the president to exercise absolute control over all logistics, decision-making processes and execution. He can have as many advisers as he wants, but until one person has full control over the process, chaos will persist.”

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

CNN: At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tackles Crisis Diplomacy at Close Range

By Kevin Liptak:

The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.


As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

* * *

Swanning through the club's living room and main dining area alongside Abe, Trump was -- as is now typical -- swarmed with paying members, who now view dinner at the club as an opportunity for a few seconds of face time with the new President.

But as he sat down for the planned working dinner with Abe, whose country is well within range of North Korea's missiles, it was clear his counterpart felt it necessary to respond to the test. The launch occurred just before 8 a.m. on Sunday morning in Japan.

Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo.

* * *

On Saturday night, the patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.

Even as a flurry of advisers and translators descended upon the table carrying papers and phones for their bosses to consult, dinner itself proceeded apace. Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

See Also: Washington Post's Trump Turns Mar-a-Lago Club Terrace into Open-Air Situation Room

Washington Post: Trump Undertakes Most Ambitious Regulatory Rollback Since Reagan

By Juliet Eilperin:

After just a few weeks in office, the new administration is targeting dozens of Obama-era policies, using both legislative and executive tactics. The fallout is already rippling across the federal ­bureaucracy and throughout the U.S. economy, affecting how dentists dispose of mercury fillings, how schools meet the needs of poor and disabled students, and whether companies reject mineral purchases that fuel one of the world’s bloodiest conflicts.

The campaign has alarmed ­labor unions, public safety advocates and environmental activists, who fear losing regulations that have been in place for years, along with relatively new federal mandates. Business groups, however, are thrilled, saying Trump is­ responding to long-standing complaints that a profusion of federal regulations unnecessarily increases costs and hampers their ability to create jobs.

* * *

Incoming agency officials are also signaling significant shifts in the way some industries are regulated. In November, the EPA sent out a lengthy request to nearly 20,000 oil and gas companies, asking them to gauge their emissions of methane within 60 or 180 days, depending on their facilities. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change.

Matthew Hite, who represents gas processors as vice president for government affairs at the GPA Midstream Association, called the request “unnecessary and duplicative” and estimated that complying would cost each processor nearly $3 million.

Since Trump took office, EPA officials have been granting companies that ask for it a 90-day extension. Several oil and gas officials said they expect the methane survey to be scaled back significantly or abandoned altogether.

Meanwhile, Michael S. Piwo­war, the acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he has instructed staff to determine whether it is “still appropriate” to require manufacturers to certify that they do not use minerals from conflict-ridden areas such as Congo, where armed groups accused of massive human rights violations profit from their trade.

Some major U.S. firms, including Intel and Tiffany & Co., have embraced the policy, but others have said complying with the disclosure rule is costly and complicated.

The Full Story (February 12, 2017)

Washington Post: As Flynn Falls Under Growing Pressure Over Russia Contacts, Trump Remains Silent

By Philip Rucker, Adam Entous and Ed O'Keefe:

Over the weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., the president privately voiced frustration with Flynn and the political baggage he is hanging on the White House, according to two people familiar with his comments.

Spicer denied that Trump criticized Flynn to anyone at the club and called assertions to the contrary “fake news.”

People close to Flynn said he feels confident in his position despite the swirling controversy. He flew to Florida this weekend with the president along with other National Security Council officials to engage with his Japanese counterparts during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit.

Furthermore, people in Trump’s orbit cautioned that the president was unlikely to fire Flynn because doing so would amount to an admission of guilt and misjudgment in the face of media scrutiny and would also demonstrate chaos early in his presidency.

The Full Story (February 12, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: The [Russian] Timeline

By Josh Marshall:

This is a timeline in progress. I’m still adding details. For the moment, I haven’t added claims of applications for FISA warrants, first denied and later approved. It seems likely to me that these occurred. But the reporting remains murky. I’ve tried to keep the timeline to publicly known incidents and events or those attested and confirmed with specific details by multiple, credible news sources.

June 16th, 2015: Donald Trump announces his candidacy for President of the United States.

Circa Summer 2015: The US government alleges that Russian hackers first gain access to DNC computer networks.

Circa August 2015: Trump staff arranges first meeting between Trump and General Flynn, according to Flynn’s account in an August 2016 interview with The Washington Post. “I got a phone call from his team. They asked if he would be willing meet with Mr. Trump and I did. … In late summer 2015.”

August 8th, 2015: Roger Stone leaves formal role in Trump campaign. Whether he quits or was fired is disputed. Stone will continue as a key, albeit informal advisor, for the remainder of the campaign.

December 10th, 2015: Michael Flynn attends conference and banquet in Moscow to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RT (formerly Russia today). Flynn is seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the concluding banquet.

March 19th, 2016: Hackers successfully hack into Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta’s email.

March 21st, 2016: In a meeting with The Washington Post editorial board, Trump provides a list of five foreign policy advisors. The list includes Carter Page but not Michael Flynn. The list is Walid Phares, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Joe Schmitz, and ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.

March 28th, 2016: Trump campaign hires Paul Manafort to oversee delegate operations for campaign. Manafort becomes the dominant figure running the campaign by late April and takes over as campaign manager on June 21st with the firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

February-April 2016: Flynn advisory relationship with Trump appears to have solidified over the Spring of 2016. In late January Flynn is mentioned as an advisor who has “regular interactions” with Trump. There are similar mentions in February and March. Yet as late as mid-March, Flynn appeared to downplay his ties to Trump. By May Flynn is routinely listed as an advisor and by late May is even being mooted as a possible vice presidential pick.

April 2016: DNC network administrators first notice suspicious activity on Committee computer networks in late April, 2016, according to The Washington Post. The DNC retains the services of network security firm Crowdstrike which expels hackers from the DNC computer network. Crowdstrike tells The Washington Post it believes hackers had been operating inside the DNC networks since the Summer of 2015.

June 14, 2016: Washington Post publishes first account of hacking of the DNC computer networks, allegedly by hackers working on behalf of the Russian government.

July 11th-12th, 2016: Trump campaign officials intervene to remove language calling for providing Ukraine with lethal aid against Russian intervention is Crimea and eastern Ukraine. It is, reportedly, the only significant Trump campaign intervention in the platform in which the Trump campaign has allowed activists a free hand.

July 12th, 2016: Official publication date, The Field of Fight by Michael Flynn and Michael Ledeen.

July 22, 2016: Wikileaks releases first tranche of DNC emails dating from January 2015 to May 2016.

July 27th, 2016: Donald Trump asks Russia to hack Clinton’s email to find 33,000 alleged lost emails: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 33,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

August 1st, 2016: Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort denies Trump campaign changed GOP platform on Russia and Ukraine.

August 14th, 2016: The New York Times publishes story detailing handwritten ledgers showing “$12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.”

August 17th, 2016: Nominee Donald Trump receives his first intelligence briefing with Gen. Michael Flynn and Gov. Chris Christie in attendance.

[timeline continues at link]

The Full Story (February 12, 2017)

Washington Post: Immigrant Community on High Alert, Fearing Trump’s ‘Deportation Force’

By Janell Ross, Aaron C. Davis and Joel Achenbach:

Fear and panic have gripped America’s immigrant community as reports circulate that federal agents have become newly aggressive under President Trump, who campaigned for office with a vow to create a “deportation force.”

Federal officials insist they have not made fundamental changes in enforcement actions, and they deny stopping people randomly at checkpoints or conducting “sweeps” of locations where undocumented immigrants are common.

But anxiety among immigrants spiked last week after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency conducted a series of enforcement actions in large metropolitan areas, detaining hundreds of people in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and other cities.

Amnesty International USA released a statement Saturday saying reports of the enforcement actions “raise grave human rights concerns.” Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus demanded an immediate meeting with Thomas D. Homan, the acting head of ICE.

“These raids have struck fear in the hearts of the immigrant community as many fear that President Trump’s promised ‘deportation force’ is now in full-swing,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Homan.

The Full Story (February 11, 2017)

CBS: Michael Flynn Might Have Violated Law When He had Call about Russian Sanctions

CBS/Associated Press with Jeff Pegues, Pat Milton and Steven Portnoy:

Investigators believe that President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia in a phone call with a Russian official, law enforcement sources told CBS News on Friday.

Multiple sources told CBS News’ Jeff Pegues and Pat Milton that the conversation occurred before Mr. Trump took office and, if true, could be a violation of protocol and could be viewed as a violation of the law.

A law enforcement source who has been briefed on the issue told Milton that the discussion dealt with the relationship going forward with Russia including the sanctions. Any discussions about sanctions by a private citizen, the source said, may create conflict and confusion around U.S. national security interests.

The sources told CBS News that investigators learned of the discussions through continuing and ongoing electronic surveillance of Russian officials as well as known and suspected intelligence operatives in the U.S.

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

CNN: US Investigators Corroborate Some Aspects of the Russia Dossier

By Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez:

None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs.

But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump.

The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say.

Reached for comment this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting."

Spicer later called back and said, "This is more fake news. It is about time CNN focused on the success the President has had bringing back jobs, protecting the nation, and strengthening relationships with Japan and other nations. The President won the election because of his vision and message for the nation."

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

[Special] FBI Director James Comey Fired by White House

• New York Times: F.B.I. Director James Comey Is Fired by Trump by Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo

President Trump on Tuesday fired the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, abruptly terminating the law enforcement official leading a wide-ranging criminal investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government to steer the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

The stunning development in Mr. Trump’s presidency raised the specter of political interference by a sitting president into an existing investigation by the nation’s leading law enforcement agency. It immediately ignited Democratic calls for an independent prosecutor to lead the Russia inquiry.

Mr. Trump explained the firing by citing Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, even though the president was widely seen to have benefited politically from that inquiry and had once praised Mr. Comey for having “guts” in his pursuit of Mrs. Clinton during the campaign.

But in his letter to Mr. Comey, released to reporters by the White House, the president betrayed his focus on the continuing inquiry into Russia and his aides.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” Mr. Trump said in a letter to Mr. Comey dated Tuesday.

Death & Taxes: President Trump Pretended to Know Japanese During Prime Minister’s Visit

By Drew Salisbury:

President Trump greeted the visiting prime minister of Japan by welcoming him to the “Very Famous White House” Friday. It was indeed a historic meeting, but the president may have missed a fair amount of Shinzō Abe’s opening remarks to the press, as several reporters in the room noted it appeared he wasn’t wearing his translation earpiece.

However, as many others pointed out, Trump was nodding along in agreement as if he understood every word.

At some point though — sometime after Prime Minister Abe finished his opening remarks — Trump noticed the earpiece on his dais and realized its purpose.

* * *

CNN confirmed it did not appear Trump was wearing the earpiece during Abe’s speech, and that the president does not in fact speak Japanese, but was following cues from his staffers who were wearing earpieces on when to laugh.

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

Politico: Trump Brings up Vote Fraud Again, This Time in Meeting with Senators

By Eli Stokols:

On Thursday, during a meeting with 10 senators that was billed as a listening session about Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, the president went off on a familiar tangent, suggesting again that he was a victim of widespread voter fraud, despite the fact that he won the presidential election.

As soon as the door closed and the reporters allowed to observe for a few minutes had been ushered out, Trump began to talk about the election, participants said, triggered by the presence of former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who lost her reelection bid in November and is now working for Trump as a Capitol Hill liaison, or “sherpa,” on the nomination of Judge Gorsuch.

The president claimed that he and Ayotte both would have been victorious in the Granite State if not for the “thousands” of people who were “brought in on buses” from neighboring Massachusetts to “illegally” vote in New Hampshire.

According to one participant who described the meeting, “an uncomfortable silence” momentarily overtook the room.

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: What About the Other Calls?

By Josh Marshall:

Trump and Flynn received repeated security briefings during the final months of the campaign. Reports indicate that they received at least broad accounts of Russian hacking targeting Hillary Clinton. Seemingly during this period Flynn was also conducting backchannel communications with Russia’s ambassador to the US. (What the Times said specifically was that they dated back prior to the US election on November 8th. Conceivably, given the vagueness of the sentence, they started on November 6th. But the Times sources certainly seem to be suggesting something that began considerably earlier.)

Did the subject of the hacking come up in those conversations with Kislyak?

Another question comes up. There were numerous instance during the campaign in which discredited and clearly false Russian propaganda ended up in statements or interviews from top Trump campaign leaders, including but not limited to Flynn. A number came from Manafort too.

At the time I thought it was most likely that they picked these up through alt-right Twitter streams and Breitbart, both of which were ready channels for Russian propaganda from sources like RT and Sputniknews. If that was what you were immersed in you’d likely hear these fake stories reported as news. I still think that’s the most likely explanation. But perhaps it’s not the only one.

When we look at the big picture, these pre-election back channel communications seem considerably more significant than the post-election ones.

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

Washington Post: Jared Kushner Proves to be a Shadow Diplomat on U.S.-Mexico Talks

By Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Joshua Partlow:

Although Kushner, 36, has no traditional foreign policy experience, he has become the primary point of contact for presidents, ministers and ambassadors from more than two dozen countries, helping lay the groundwork for agreements, according to U.S. and foreign officials with knowledge of the contacts. He has had extensive talks with many of these diplomats, including in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, the officials said.

Kushner’s back-channel communications with Mexico — the full extent of which has not been previously reported — reveal him to be almost a shadow secretary of state, operating outside the boundaries of the State Department or the National Security Council.

Videgaray had come to the White House on Jan. 25 for a full day of private meetings, but it was Kushner who gave him a heads-up that Trump would deliver a speech that afternoon at the Department of Homeland Security where he would sign an executive order on his signature border wall.

And it was Kushner who led Videgaray into the Oval Office for an unscheduled audience with the president, where together they made their case to Trump for a more measured discussion of Mexico.

The president agreed.

The Full Story (February 9, 2017)

New York: Kellyanne Conway’s Endorsement of Ivanka Products Apparently Violates Federal Law

By Jonathan Chait:

President Trump has been obliterating existing norms about using his office for personal enrichment. “Norms” is the key word — federal law strictly regulates conflicts of interest of every federal employee except the president, who is assumed (or was assumed, before Trump came along) to refrain from using his office for personal gain. In their few weeks in office, Trump’s staff have apparently gotten comfortable enough with the arrangement that they are now routinely blending their roles as spokespeople for Trump the president and Trump the brand. Kellyanne Conway used an interview from the White House this morning to officially endorse the Ivanka Trump product line.

* * *

Update: The Washington Post adds more reporting, confirming that Conway appears to have clearly violated federal ethics laws. While the violation seems undisputable, enforcement is typically handled by the employee’s federal agency: “Enforcement measures are largely left to the head of the federal agency — in Conway’s case, the White House,” reports the Post, “One lawyer said a typical executive-branch employee who violated the rule could face significant disciplinary action, including a multi-day suspension and loss of pay.”

The Full Story (February 9, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: How Did Sebastian Gorka Go From The Anti-Muslim Fringe To White House Aide?

By Allegra Kirkland:

While Gorka, a former Breitbart News national security editor and fixture on Fox News, published the New York Times bestseller “Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War,” held various positions at military educational institutions and even testified before the House Armed Services Committee on the threat of “global jihadism,” he was little-known in mainstream D.C. circles before the 2016 election year.

* * *

Omid Safi, director of Islamic Studies at Duke University, was much more biting in his assessment, labeling Gorka’s book “propaganda.”

“He opines on everything from the Koran to Mohamad to jihad to Islamic history to contemporary politics but does so in a way that is inaccurate, sloppy, superficial, bigoted and ideological,” Safi said.

Gorka’s resume details a long list of short-term professorships and work for small conservative think tanks, several of which he founded with his wife, Katharine, a national security analyst who served on Trump’s Department of Homeland Security landing team. The people TPM spoke with who work on counterterrorism issues said they weren’t familiar with those Gorka-founded organizations, including Threat Knowledge Group, a consulting firm that claimed to provide strategic advice to the FBI, Army and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Threat Knowledge Group’s website, like Gorka’s own, has been taken offline since he joined the administration in late January.

Since joining the Trump White House, Gorka has swiftly become the public face of Trump’s foreign policy, making dozens of radio and cable appearances to tout the President’s focus on defeating “radical Islam” via an executive order on immigration. A White House spokeswoman on Wednesday declined to respond to TPM’s request for comment on how experts characterized Gorka’s past work and what his role as deputy assistant to Trump entails.

Gorka’s name and views appear to have a higher profile among experts on Islamophobia than in the counterterrorism community.

The Full Story (February 9, 2017)

Washington Post: National Security Adviser Flynn Discussed Sanctions with Russian Ambassador, Despite Denials, Officials Say

By Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima:

National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.

Flynn on Wednesday denied that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Asked in an interview whether he had ever done so, he twice said, “No.”

On Thursday, Flynn, through his spokesman, backed away from the denial. The spokesman said Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

Officials said this week that the FBI is continuing to examine Flynn’s communications with Kislyak. Several officials emphasized that while sanctions were discussed, they did not see evidence that Flynn had an intent to convey an explicit promise to take action after the inauguration.

The Full Story (February 9, 2017)