Andrew McCarthy continues to argue that the Cohen/Clifford investigation is Trump’s true danger, not the Russia investigation: “It seems evident that prosecutors are investigating on the theory that Clifford, McDougal, and perhaps others were defrauded or extorted into silence.”
The New York Times quoted Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg about how badly Trump treated Cohen, and that he might turn on Trump in the coming legal proceedings. This story solicited an angry Trump tweet.
One day after Nikki Haley said more Russian sanctions were coming, the White House said there would be no sanctions at this time: Trump “was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.”
A piece of thorough reporting by the Washington Post that details how Trump was angry he had authorized 60 Russian expulsions when France, Britain and Germany expelled far less. He wanted each country to expel equal numbers so not to seem like the US was taking the lead against Putin.
On Monday a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that Trump’s team would not get first access to the Cohen documents. It was also revealed that Cohen only had three clients in the previous years, and one of them was Sean Hannity. It is unclear at this point if this is significant.
Big-spending members of Trump’s cabinet are in the news this week. Zinke is criticized for protecting wildlife areas from his home state of Montana while opening up similar areas in other states. He also was cited by the GAO for taking a flight to give a speech for a donor that was not related to his official duties. The GAO also said Pruitt broke the law by installing a $46,000 phone booth in his office. Weirdly, one of the upgrades to his car was bullet-proof seat covers.
Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un, and Trump is talking about a Korean peace treaty. They are scouting five sites where Trump and Kim will meet in May or June.
Reporters for the New York Times got Homeland Security to admit they have separated 700 children from their parents (or other adults) who came to the US boarder seeking asylum.
In Russia News:
Sunday night, Comey’s first interview aired on ABC. Here is what the New York Times reported on the 5 hour interview (only one hour was televised). Here is the full transcript.
Book reviews were published in the New York Times and on the front page of the Washington Post.
Much of the media has focused on Comey’s comments about Trump’s body, or his Comey’s 2016 role. Ben Wittes implores us to focus on the most important part of Comey’s story: the reason Trump fired him: “A tyranny cannot have independent law enforcement and remain an effective tyranny. A would-be tyrant thus must purge government of law enforcement that would be independent. He simply must get the law enforcement apparatus under his control—that is, protecting his friends and himself and arrayed against his enemies. I did not know who would be the Trump administration’s attorney general or deputy attorney general. But I knew that Trump would not be able to get law enforcement under his control with Comey in office
House GOP members are beginning to assert themselves in the Russia investigation by pressuring Rosenstein, including threatening impeachment for not turning over DOJ documents.
Lawrence Tribe tweeted as a response to this article: “I worry that Trump’s allies in Congress will trump up a contempt citation against Rosenstein (recall Holder!), or even a bill of impeachment against him, to give Trump an excuse to fire him.”
Republicans in Congress are saying that the released Comey memos prove there was not obstruction because the memos do not show the Comey felt intimidated. No one is really taking that seriously, and they are laying pretty quiet. If there was anything in the memos that could be spun as pro-Trump they would be crowing about it. Only Trump opponents are crowing.
Here is Frum arguing that the House GOP thought this would be good fro Trump (like the Nunes memo) because they operate inside a closed information bubble where they convince themselves that their narrative is the only one people will see.
Sessions told White House lawyers that he may resign if Trump fires Rosenstein.
Rudy Giuliani joined Trump’s legal team. It is a short term move to help smooth things over with Mueller, whom Giuliani had worked with for many years.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 40.3%