Kushner in Krisis

Kushner Kompromat:   Chief of Staff Kelly made good on his promise, he is now treating everyone the same, at least with regard to their security clearances. As a result, Jared Kushner’s has been bumped down, in theory he no longer gets to see the super-duper secret stuff that someone with a top secret/sensitive compartmentalized clearance would get to see.  His new access is plain old top secret which puts him in the same category as the White House cleaning staff.  Of course this is all theoretical, if Trump, the final arbiter, wants him to see more information or wants to invite him into a national security meeting he can.  The official White House position as articulated by Sarah Huckabee Sanders is that Kushner is a “valued member of the team and will continue to do the important work he has been doing since he started in the administration,” and that losing his ability to see critical intelligence won’t impact his ability to continue solving Middle East peace or deal with China but that is total bunk.  You really can’t be a top diplomat if you aren’t in on all the security issues.  The intelligence agencies want the rest of us to know that the decision to deny Kushner permanent clearance is justified.  Last night the Washington Post reported that officials from at least four countries, including Israel, United Arab Emirates, Mexico and China have discussed ways they could use Kushner's intricate business arrangements, lack of experience and financial woes to manipulate him. In all likelihood this intel was leaked by one or more of those intelligence services that Trump likes to malign to make the point that Kushner really is a security risk.  For his part, Kushner has contributed to his own demise by foolishly attending secret meetings with representatives of several countries and their government sponsored banks without anyone else from the US in attendance.  Yesterday, it was also announced that Kushner and Ivanka’s personal public relations guy and close ally Josh Rafel is leaving the White House for “family reasons.” Rafel was responsible for making sure that Javanka got the best press coverage possible.  At least at this point, he hasn’t lined up another job so it’s likely that he just wants off the sinking ship or at the very least wants to limit his own legal exposure, he has already had the pleasure of visiting with Special Counsel Mueller’s team.  Dina Powell, the last member of team Javanka to jump ship has resurfaced at Goldman Sachs, she’s another one who wisely decided to get out early and it looks like she made the right decision. Rafel won’t end up at Goldman, but a year of presenting the challenging Javanka pair in the best light probably makes him a good catch for a P.R. firm with similarly dicey clients.  With all the focus on Kushner's security problems, no mention was made about Ivanka’s, but it’s fair to assume that her clearance has been lowered as well, her days as emissary to South Korea and other parts unknown may be over too.   

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Yesterday, Mueller dismissed the charges against Rick Gates, at the same time Gates’ travel restrictions were temporarily lifted and he was given permission to go on a family vacation to Boston, further indication that whatever he’s told Mueller’s team it is already proving valuable.  Pleading guilty and cooperating with Mueller has its benefits.  Hope Hicks spent the day testifying before the highly dysfunctional House Intelligence Committee where she admitted to telling the occasional white lie because that’s what you have to do when you work for Trump.  Though the White House didn’t assert executive privilege they did limit the questions that Hicks could answer to those that addressed events that occurred during the campaign though as the day progressed she did answer a few questions related to the transition but only because she had previously answered similar questions during her earlier Senate testimony.  Democrats on the committee want to slam Hicks with a subpoena to force her to answer the questions that she evaded, however Republicans are okay with letting her off because that’s what Trump wants and they wouldn’t want to do anything to rock his boat.  While Hicks was with the House, US Cyber Command Chief Admiral Mike Rogers was testifying in the Senate, he told lawmakers that he has not been granted the authority by Trump to disrupt Russian election hacking operations. He went on to say that the Russians “have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior.” Rogers, who is due to retire soon, went rogue dispensing with caution, instead throwing Trump under the bus for his failure to forcefully strike back at the Russians for their efforts to disrupt the US elections. Later in the day NBC reported that during the 2016 elections seven states’ websites and databases were targeted by the Russians and that states where there were indicators of a breach included Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin. During her daily press conference Huckabee Sanders pushed back at Rogers' stern assertion and undue concerns about the integrity of the electoral system, again blaming Russian election interference on Obama while claiming that Trump, who has done virtually nothing to punish the Russians for their behavior, has been much harsher on Putin and his cronies.  No one in the room bought her tired routine, the US election system remains exposed and election season is upon us.   

Midterm Madness:  With November just around the corner, midterm madness is ratcheting up.  Though she’s way ahead in the polls and will probably prevail in the end, veteran Senator Diane Feinstein failed to get the endorsement of the California Democratic party, neither did her more progressive competitor, whose primary complaints about Feinstein are that she is too moderate, too willing to cooperate with Republicans and too old, that last one was unsaid but implied.  The California primary takes place in June.  The special election for the Pennsylvania 18^th seat takes place in two weeks and its looking to be a squeaker.  Against all odds, Democratic candidate Conor Lamb, a gun toting, pro-choice moderate, is closing in on Republican Rick Saccone in what should have been an easy win for the Republican. Whoever wins here will have to run again in November in one of the redrawn Pennsylvania districts so the outcome is mostly symbolic, still a strong showing by Lamb, even if he loses, will be very concerning for Republican leadership.  Lastly, yesterday Trump signaled his intent to run for reelection in 2020 by appointing digital maven Brad Parscale to be his campaign manager.  Parscale, a Kushner crony, worked as Trump’s top digital operations guru for the 2016 campaign and was credited with possibly tipping the election.  He’s also come under suspicion for cooperating with one or more of those Russian bots and has been interviewed by Mueller, but then again that Russia investigation is FAKE NEWS so who really cares. 

North Korea:  Yesterday, Joseph Yun, the US special envoy responsible for North Korea abruptly announced plans to retire this coming Friday. Yun decided to throw in the towel shortly after Trump again rejected participating in unconditional talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.  Just a reminder, we still don’t have an ambassador to South Korea because the last guy proposed for the position had his nomination pulled after he too came out against Trump’s strategy for dealing with the Little Rocket Man.  No one in the White House thinks that Yun’s departure is much of a problem, so no worries, because the White House’s judgement is always spot on and, anyway, Ivanka looked really spiffy when she played Ambassador at the Olympics.