1-800-Lawyers

So Much for Graceful Trump:  Wednesday in response to the baseball shooting, Trump had a rare moment of grace.  Yesterday morning, while many members of Congress called for a return to civility, Trump returned to Trump normal.  During the day he issued a series of tweet smacks, again calling the Russia investigation a “witch hunt,” Special Counsel Mueller the leader of “some very bad and conflicted people,” and Hillary Clinton, who should never have been allowed to escape prosecution and should have been investigated for her Russian connections, “crooked H.”  Needless to say Trump needs to work on his coping skills.  Reports that he is now a subject of the Russia investigation are freaking him out and things will only get worse from here.  

Pence Has Lawyered Up: Recognizing that he could get entangled in Mueller’s web, Vice President Pence has now retained his own lawyer to help him navigate the Russia probe.  Pence headed the Trump transition team which makes his assertion that he didn’t know that former national security adviser Mike Flynn was damaged goods questionable.  He was also one of the people that Trump consulted before firing former FBI Director Comey, the event that triggered the hiring of Mueller and the possibility of obstruction charges.  Unlike Trump, Pence’s new attorney, Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods, has relevant Washington experience, he is a former US Attorney who represented politicians during the Iran-Contra and Watergate investigations.  As long as Flynn avoids divorce court and real estate investing, he will be getting better legal advice than Trump.  If they haven’t already, the rest of the White House staff should ignore Marc Kasowitz’s advice that they don’t need their own representation and start lawyering up. 

Follow the Money:  Yesterday afternoon the Washington Post reported that Mueller is investigating Jared Kushner’s finances and business dealings. Mueller’s team is digging into the purpose of Kushner’s questionable meeting with Sergey Gorkov, the Putin crony who is the head of a Russia state-owned and sanctioned bank.  Though this isn’t a surprise it is a bigly problem for the son-in-law, because once they start the FBI will go down any and all wormholes and it’s hard to believe that they won’t find a few.

Rosenstein Nighttime Missive:  Last night Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein released a peculiar statement warning that “Americans should be skeptical before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials”….”particularly when they do not identify the country.”   It’s not clear why Rosenstein released the highly unusual meandering statement, if he was referring to a specific recent story or if he knows something big is about to be released.  Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator tweeted that “there must be a heck of a Trump story coming.”  Even before the Rosenstein statement, a number of legal experts, including NBC’s Ari Melber, suggested that Rosenstein may have to recuse himself from the Russia investigation due to his involvement in the Comey firing.  That would leave a mid-level Judiciary Department attorney supervising Mueller and subject to Trump pressure.       

Trumpcare Percolates:  Shootings, baseball games, and Trump twitter rants haven’t stopped Majority Leader McConnell and his intrepid secret health care committee from pressing ahead with their version of no-care Trumpcare.  McConnell is still trying to get the newest version of Trumpcare over to the Office of Management and Budget scorers.  Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Price disingenuously said that he doesn’t know what’s in the newest version and doesn’t even know which senators are working on the legislation.  If true,  he’s not alone.  Most of the rest of the Senate, including all the Democratic Senators, have little idea what’s in the legislation though a few new features have leaked out. The revised plan may allow insurers to impose life time and annual reimbursement limits, provisions that were prohibited by Obamacare.  There is also a possibility that the Senate will maintain the Medicaid expansion program, the part of Obamacare that provides insurance for most of its beneficiaries, for a few more years than the House plan, to appeal to senators from states that are major beneficiaries of the expansion.  Recognizing that the Obamacare exchanges are suffering in face of legislative uncertainty, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander called on Trump to continue making Obamacare subsidy payments, at least for now.  Beyond labelling the House version of Trumpcare “too harsh,” there’s been no response from the Tweeter-in-Chief.       

The Shrinking State:   Earlier in the week Secretary of State Tillerson tried to convince the Appropriations Committee that the State Department would be fine with a 30% funding cut that particularly targets foreign aid.  They were not buying it.  Senator Graham said that “this budget request is radical and reckless when it comes to soft power.”  Senator Leahy said the budget symbolizes a US retreat from world leadership and China and Russia will rush to fill.”   Tillerson also reported that Palestinian leader Abbas has promised to eliminate reward payments to families of suicide bombers.  This is news to Abbas, who has no plans to stop the payments.

Daily Funny:  Remember when Trump said that America was the subject of ridicule by the international community.  Well he is now.  At the Australia Mid-Winter Ball, an event similar to the White House Correspondent’s dinner, Australia Prime Minister Turnball poked fun at Trump’s behavior, syntax and the Russian investigation.  Imitating Trump, he joked that elections are “so easy to win, I have this Russian guy, Believe me, it’s true.”    The local US embassy said that they understand that the event is a lighthearted evening and that “we take this with the good humor that was intended.”   It’s not clear that the notoriously thin skinned Trump is laughing.