You've Got Mail

Our Idiot Brother:  Monday night the NY Times reported that three sources had seen copies of emails between Don Jr and Rob Goldstone, the publicist who brokered the meeting between Don Jr and Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer and Putin operative.  Tuesday we learned that there was another source.  As the NY Times released copies of the emails, the fourth source,  the dimwitted Don Jr, still oblivious to the legal consequences of his actions, tweeted out the originals.  In the email thread Goldstone tells Don Jr that the “crown prosecutor of Russia offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia” because Putin really wants to see Trump beat his nemesis Hillary.  Don Jr giddily emails back “if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” which not so coincidentally is when the leaked DNC emails were fully weaponized.  The rest of the thread focuses on meeting logistics with Don Jr telling Goldstone that he will be joined by Kushner and Manafort and Goldstone talking about Natalia’s flight from Moscow. Somewhere in the middle of the string, Goldstone mentions that he would have gone straight to daddy Trump, but thought it would be more discrete to go Don Jr first.  Manafort and Kushner, who’d conveniently forgotten to mention the meeting on his initial disclosure forms, were copied on the email chain.

Dr. Zhivago:  The party line at the White House continues to be that Trump didn’t know anything about the Natalia meeting until he learned about it this weekend even though he was in his office on the 26^th Floor of Trump Tower when the meeting took place one floor below, Don Jr tells him everything and Kushner is his alter ego.  Trump who signed off on all of Don Jr’s misleading statements remained uncharacteristically silent for a while but finally stepped up to say a few nice words about his errant son.  Actually, he didn’t say anything,  but had Sarah Huckabee Sanders say he believes that Don Jr is a “high quality person” and that he “applauds his transparency.” Three days and an ever changing story is transparent by Trump standards. The Trump team still stands by the countless statements that they’ve never met with any Russians.  Pence is distancing himself, he took a moment away from fundraising for his Presidential run to remind everyone that he’d never met a Trump back when the Natalia meeting took place. A few Democrats are using the word treason and even Representative Trey Gowdy, the man who relentlessly went after Hillary for Benghazi, is speaking up. He  called for Trump and his minions to come clean, listing every Russia meeting they ever had, starting with the first time they saw  Dr Zhivago.   

Downfall: Don Jr’s emails suggest that he together with Manafort and Kushner may have violated Federal election laws that make it a crime for any person to “solicit, accept or receive” a contribution or “anything of value” from a foreign person for a US political campaign for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office. It doesn’t help that the foreign person was Russia, a hostile entity, led by the nefarious Putin.  The Trump party line is that the guys were just doing some run of the mill opposition research, what anyone else in their position would do. Don’t believe it, everyone does opposition research but no one else does it like this. Manafort is in so deep with so many other legal problems that the addition of some federal election violations to his criminal mix probably doesn’t phase him and may give him some negotiating leverage with Special Counsel Mueller.  Kushner’s problems keep piling up, he should be long gone but still has his security clearance, at least for now, because being married to favorite daughter Ivanka has benefits.  Don Jr is still talking and still says he did nothing wrong.  Somehow or other his lawyer let him appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox show last night.  If he keeps this up he could be left holding the bag, especially if the DNA test Trump sent out to Ancestry.com last night throws any doubt on his paternity.

Flatliners:  Majority Leader McConnell is keeping his head down, ignoring all things Russian, while he tries to raise  Trumpcare back from the dead.  So far his attempts at resuscitation have failed so he’s cancelled part of the Senate’s August break.  A new version of Trumpcare will be made public on Thursday and a new scoring report is expected on Monday.  Tuesday he told Republican Senators that some Obamacare taxes will remain, $45 billion will be added for opioid addiction and people will be allowed to pay insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars. He’s still not sure about the Cruz amendment.  It doesn’t appear that anything has been done to satisfy Senators from states benefitting from the Medicaid expansion.  Susan Collins is still a no, Rand Paul is still a no and eight other Republican Senators are in “wait and see” mode.  Lindsay Graham says that he is planning to write a new bill, soliciting support from some Democrats.  Trumpcare is barely breathing and no one knows who has the defribrillator.  McConnell should start by searching in the White House which is quickly turning into cardiac arrest central.