No Planet B

Cabinet Mess:  Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson is either the victim of a concerted effort to trash his reputation or is a really bad player.  More accusations about him came to the surface yesterday and, to the extent they are true, he’s in bigly trouble.  Montana Senator Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Veterans Affairs committee, released a list of the complaints provided to his staff by more than twenty active and retired military professionals, complaints that have also been shared with Republican staff members. These additions to the earlier list of accusations against Jackson include a claim that the “candyman” doctor provided a “large supply” of Percocet to a White House Military Office staff member and that he “threw his own medical staff into a panic” when they couldn’t account for the missing drugs; that he crashed an official  car after an alcohol infused party for a departing secret service officer; and that he wrote himself prescriptions and then, when caught, had a physician’s assistant cover up his infraction. It’s also been suggested that he treated his minions poorly but that he was skilled at managing up, something that was evident when he provided his over the top assessment of Trump’s physical condition and mental “acuity.”  Last night, Jackson denied all of the accusations and a number of the Obama era and Trump era staff members who have benefited from his care and lax drug dispensing still say that they never witnessed any of the alleged bad behavior.  That said, despite a show of support from the White House, reports are that Jackson is about to request that his nomination to head up the VA be pulled. At this point to the extent that any of the accusations against him are shown to be true, it’s not clear that he will even be able to stay on at the White House or in the Navy.  EPA Head Scott Pruitt is likely to have a tough day as well.  Pruitt is scheduled to appear before two Congressional committees today and though his testimony is supposed to focus on policy and budget it is expected that he will be grilled about his ethics lapses.  The overconfident Pruitt is going it alone, reports are that he refused White House assistance with his testimony preparation and instead has prepared a set of talking points, all of which blame his staff for his personal failings.  It’s not likely that his strategy will work.  Though Mick Mulvaney is probably going to survive his gaffe, the one where he said that he gave preferential treatment to the lobbyists who contributed to his campaigns, he’s also facing some blowback and a possible, though unlikely to go anywhere, investigation.  At the very least he has provided the Democrats with really good fodder for their 2018 campaign ads.  So much for draining the swamp.  Lastly, HUD head Dr. Ben Carson, the guy who ordered the most expensive table that he could find for his office, is expected to announce large rent increases for low-income Americans receiving federal housing subsidies because someone has to help pay for the hole in the budget created by the tax cuts.    

Russia and Cohen:  Last week when Rudy Giuiliani joined the Trump team he bragged that he would speed up the Mueller investigation, ending it in two weeks.  One week has passed and it doesn’t look like he’s made much progress, reports are that he has already told the Trump team that he didn’t mean to be taken literally.  However, together with Trump’s other lawyers including his other new hires Florida based white collar crime experts Marty and Jane Raskin, he has met with Special Counsel Mueller.  Apparently they reopened the discussion of the possibility of Trump meeting with Mueller’s team, something that Mueller still wants to pursue but that most legal experts believe is unlikely to happen without a subpoena mostly because of Trump’s congenital inability to speak the truth. Things on the Michael Cohen front are heating up too. Yesterday, under the advice of his counsel, Cohen told the judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by adult film star Stormy Daniels that he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself to protect himself in the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Remember when Trump said that only “the mob takes the Fifth” because “if you are innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”  Hmm, good question.  As to the Southern District of New York case, Trump who apparently isn’t busy enough with his day job, wants an opportunity to personally review all of the files related to him that were obtained during the raid on Cohen’s facilities.  Lawyers for Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization told Kimba Wood, the Judge handling that case, that they were ready to put in place the significant amount of resources necessary to quickly review all of those documents and that Trump would be available “as needed” to assist.  The Judge is expected to rule as early as today on a procedure to facilitate that review.  Expectations are that she will appoint a neutral “special master” for the review.       

Other Legal News:  On Tuesday a Federal Judge for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of keeping the DACA program alive.  The ruling by Judge John Bates, a Republican appointee, went a step further than earlier rulings by judges from Brooklyn and San Francisco in that he said that if the Department of Homeland Security couldn’t provide a better reason for ending the DACA program than it would have to start accepting new applicants, prior rulings benefited only those who were already participants in the DACA program.  For now potential new applicants remain in limbo because the judge stayed his ruling in order to give Homeland Security an opportunity to gin up a better rationale for ending DACA.  Yesterday lawyers for and against the administration’s newest travel ban appeared in front of the Supreme Court to argue their positions.  The court appeared split with the conservative justices seeming willing to ignore Trump’s anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric and tweets with the more liberal judges sounding much less forgiving.  The final decision may rest in the hands of frequent swing Justice Anthony Kennedy.   

The French Bro:  French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in front of a joint session of Congress, sounding more like an Obamaphile than a Trumpist, he defended the Iran nuclear agreement, saying that France would stick with it no matter what Trump decides to do.  The complication for France and the other European parties to the agreement is that to the extent Trump pulls the US from the agreement, the re-imposition of  US sanctions against companies doing business with Iran would significantly impact major European companies, limiting their ability to transact US related business if they do business with Iran.  Additionally, Iran would likely restart its nuclear program. Macron also rejected nationalism and argued for the importance of protecting the environment pointing out that we have an obligation to build a  better world for our children and that with regard to the Paris climate accords there is no Planet B. The Trump-Macron bromance may have just hit a pretty big speedbump. Trump may or may not have made his mind up about the Iran agreement but with his key advisors Mike Pompeo and John Bolton both on record against the agreement, there is a good chance that Macron will go home emptyhanded.  As to that other nuclear power wannabee, the one who already has more than a few nukes of his own, it’s looking more and more like Kim Jong Un’s willingness to give up his nuclear testing had more to do with the cratering of his test site than a sign of his interest in giving up his whole nuclear program in response to Trump’s pressure.  Scientists report that the site has collapsed, is unusable and now represents an environmental hazard.