No Olson For You

Nixing Cambridge Analytica:  It turns out that being caught on camera offering to ensnare opposing politicians with Ukrainian prostitutes and phony land deals is not good for your company or your career longevity. The Cambridge Analytica board has now suspended its CEO Alexander Nix, claiming that his actions “do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation.” That’s quite a statement from a firm that prides itself on data manipulation and its skill at placing false and malicious news stories.  As to those skills, the same UK Channel 4 report that caught Nix offering up prostitutes includes a tape of him bragging that his firm “ran all the digital campaign for” Trump, playing a “crucial role” in Trump winning the electoral college and more of another Cambridge Analytica executive bragging about how they spearheaded a “Defeat Crooked Hillary” ad campaign funded by one of the Trump related super PACs.  Nix is also shown making fun of the House Intelligence Committee, saying that when he testified before them the Republicans asked three questions and took all of his answers at face value, he did say that the Democrats were more persistent but that they were all politicians, and were not technical so they didn’t understand how it works. “They don’t understand because the candidate is never involved.  He is told what to do by the campaign team.”  As to Trump’s campaign team, last year Kushner and Trump data guru now 2020 campaign head, Brad Parscale, bragged about how teaming up with Cambridge Analytica aided Trump’s victory, however, now they are claiming that the firm added no value and that the millions that they were paid for their services was just money down the drain.  Before Trump, Cambridge Analytica was employed by Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign, interesting because before shifting their allegiance to Trump, Steve Bannon, then a Cambridge Analytica officer  and the Mercer family, a major company investor, supported Cruz.  Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is still in charge of his company but is coming under increasing scrutiny for its careless treatment of user information and its willingness to work with questionable companies like Cambridge.  He is likely to find himself in the Congressional hot seat shortly where he is likely to learn that not all members of Congress are as clueless as the House Intelligence Committee Republicans.      

Putin Trump Bromance:  Yesterday, despite the ongoing Mueller investigation, Russia’s election meddling, and the Kremlin’s poisoning of its former spies, Trump called Putin to congratulate him on his decisive election victory.  That the election was a sham, that opposing candidates were kept off the ballot and that video clips of people stuffing ballot boxes on Putin’s behalf were viral, meant little to Trump, a winner is a winner and in his eyes Putin is a winner. During the course of the call, the two also discussed the possibility of meeting to discuss the nuclear arms race, possibly a reference to continuing the START treaty, Ukraine, Syria and North Korea.  While it’s important that all of those subjects get attention, it was Trump’s statement that he had also congratulated Putin on his win that raised concern, so much that after the call someone at the White House leaked that Trump had been told by his national security team to refrain from congratulating Putin and that a hand written note with the words “DO NOT CONGRATULATE PUTIN” in big upper case letters, had been dangled in front of Trump during the call. That leak is now raising additional concerns at the White House, proving that all the threats and non-disclosure agreements in the universe can’t shut up truly disturbed White House denizens.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump saying “Look in terms of the election there, we’re focused on our elections.  We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate.”  Except of course Trump previously launched into an attack of Venezuela’s leadership after their elections.  To be clear it’s not unprecedented for US leaders to congratulate Putin for his questionable victories, Obama did too, but that was before the Russians were caught red handed meddling in our election and before they annexed Crimea. From somewhere in Arizona, the ailing Senator McCain blasted Trump, calling the congratulatory call an insult to every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election…..an American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.”      

Storm Clouds:  It’s raining women and not in a good way. Stormy Daniels hasn’t gone away, her 60 Minutes interview is still scheduled to air on Sunday evening.  Yesterday a video of Stormy taking and passing a lie detector test back in 2011 was shown by various news outlets before her lawyer bought it for $25,000 to prevent it from being “misused.”  Stormy can afford the purchase, her crowdfund account is up above $250,000.   At this point Stormy is just one of Trump’s problems. Karen McDougal, the former playboy model who had a consensual relationship with Trump around the same time that he was hanging with Stormy and Melania was taking care of a very young Barron, is suing the National Enquirer in an attempt to get out from under the “catch and kill” agreement that she signed with the paper.  Her lawyers are arguing that she was tricked into the agreement and that the lawyer who represented her at the time was part of the deception.  The payment that the National Enquirer made to keep her quiet could also be considered another one of those violations of campaign finance laws.  Separately, a New York State judge rejected an attempt by Trump’s legal team, this one headed by his long term lawyer Marc Kasowitz, to use presidential immunity to shut down a lawsuit from former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos.  Zervos, one of the women who came forward before the election, says that Trump groped her and kissed her against her wishes.  She is suing Trump, who called her story fiction and her a liar, for defamation.  Trump’s lawyers are expected to appeal, but precedent is on Zervos’ side. That precedent relates to Bill Clinton’s Paula Jones case, and as if this story isn’t convoluted enough, that precedent was established as a result of a successful case made by George Conway, Kellyanne Conway’s husband, who argued that sitting presidents are not above the law.  If Zervos prevails Trump will be forced to appear for a deposition, no polygraph required  Though Trump’s legal bills, to the extent that he ever plans on paying them, must be spiraling out of control, he doesn’t have to worry about paying attorney Theodore Olson’s high hourly rate.  Olson, the very conservative and highly respected Gibson Dunn partner who argued on behalf of Bush in the Bush v Gore election case that ended the recount in the disputed 2010 election and also surprisingly enough successfully argued against the ban of same sex marriage has decided that representing Trump is not something that he wants to do, yesterday he turned down an offer to join Trump’s team.                  

Budget Bill:  Congress, also known as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, still hasn’t finalized the terms of the omnibus spending bill.  A scaled-back plan for Trump's border wall and a fight over the Hudson River tunnel are still holding up a final agreement, raising the possibility that the government could be closed again this weekend or that another short term, kick the can down the road solution will be needed to keep the government running.  As to shooting straight, there’s still no gun legislation but there was another school shooting yesterday, this time a school resource office, not a repurposed teacher but a skilled former SEAL, saved the day by taking out the shooter who was “only” carrying a handgun. As to random bombings, early this morning the suspected Austin serial bomber blew himself up after being surrounded by local SWAT team officers and Federal agents, some of those guys from the so called “deep state.”