Not That Q

Tweeting Against Interest:  Responding to a Washington Post report that he was growing increasingly concerned about the focus of the Mueller investigation on Don Jr and his infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump hit his tweeter early yesterday, sending out a missive that rivaled his admission to NBC’s Lester Holt that he fired former FBI Director Comey because he couldn’t get him to stop his Russian investigation, the confession that led to the hiring of Special Counsel Mueller in the first place.  Specifically Trump tweeted “Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics — and it went nowhere.”  Then after accidentally or intentionally throwing his son under the bus, he concluded with “I did not know about it!”  In one tweet, Trump confirmed that his son, together with his then campaign manager Paul Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with representatives of a foreign country with the hopes of obtaining dirt on an opponent, a bigly problem for all involved since it is a violation of federal law for a candidate to ask for or receive something of value from a foreign national.   And though Trump insists that this is done all the time, it isn’t, faced with similar offers other candidates have contacted the FBI, the thing you are supposed to do when a hostile foreign power offers to help your campaign.  As to any defense that his son was just naïve and didn’t know that getting dirt from a foreign player was against the law, that excuse doesn’t fly either because he was sitting with Manafort, a very experienced political operator who certainly knew better.  While Trump was tweeting against interest, Jay Sekulow one of his lawyers was getting grilled by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Last year when the Trump Tower meeting first came to light, Sekulow had very publicly issued misleading information about the meeting.  Yesterday, in response to a question about that he tried to walk his prevarication back, saying "I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement….That happens when you have cases like this."   Though he said “cases” you know he was thinking client. As to that client, Sekulow went on to question Mueller’s right to subpoena Trump for the interview that Trump insists he wants to sit for, the one that his lawyers rightfully fear, adding, the ensuing legal fight would work its way to the Supreme Court.  Getting back to Don Jr, Trump is correct to be concerned about him as he has not been interviewed by Mueller’s team, a strong indication that he may be a target of the investigation.  Roger Stone, Trump’s long time crony, hasn’t been interviewed by Mueller either, and it’s looking more and more likely that he will be indicted soon. On Friday, it was reported that Mueller’s team has completed its interview of Kristen Davis, the onetime Wall Street Madam who also provided some tech services to Stone, the assumption is that she learned something during the course of her tech work that might shed light on some of Stone’s illegal activities.  Possibly she’s aware of his communication with WikiLeaks and/or Guccifer 2.0 about the Clinton emails or alternatively she’s aware of his other bad some acts, in any case her involvement isn’t a good thing for Stone or for that matter Trump.  Also on the Stone front, a federal judge has ordered that  Andrew Miller, Stone’s long-time aide has to testify before one of Mueller’s grand juries.  Miller’s lawyers had tried to get him out of appearing by challenging the legitimacy of Mueller’s appointment.  The judge ruled that “The scope of the Special Counsel’s power falls well within the boundaries the Constitution permits, as the Special Counsel is supervised by an official who is himself accountable to the elected President.”  In other words, despite a lot of assertions from Trump, his cronies in Congress, and others looking for a way to avoid testifying, Mueller is legit.  Trump’s weekend tweeting also upped his war on the press, who he called “dangerous and sick” going so far as to suggest that they “can also cause War.”  When asked about those assertions, Trump explainer Kellyanne Conway suggested that Trump was referring to "some reporters" who she said "aren't always telling the truth," adding that she doesn't believe journalists are the enemy of the people though she does believe that “some journalists are the enemy of the relevant, and the enemy of the news you can use."  Just some complicit doublespeak from the coiner of the expression alternative facts.  Trump also attacked sports hero LeBron James, calling him stupid, a word he almost always uses to describe any and all African Americans who criticize him.  Suffice it to say, James is far from stupid and his comments about Trump were spot on, even Melania thinks so, though its not clear that her comments, or the comments coming from her spokesperson aren’t just a calculated effort by the Trump public relations team to make us think that Trump’s women really care.      

Thoughts and Prayers:  The NRA would like us all to believe that it is facing a severe financial crisis that will force it to shut down some of its operations including its online media presence, rallies and conventions, and maybe, just maybe some of its donations to all those pro-gun Republican candidates. The NRA blames its financial woes on NY Governor Andrew Cuomo claiming that he has been waging a war against the organization by discouraging insurance companies and other financial institutions from doing business with it. To a certain extent Cuomo, who doesn’t plan to back down, has been waging a war against the NRA, hitting where it hurts, under his direction the NY State Department of Financial Services has fined several insurance companies for participating in a NRA backed liability insurance program for gun owners.  NY State argues that the insurance in question, which critics call “murder insurance,” covers “certain acts of intentional wrongdoing” and is therefore unlawful. In addition, in April Cuomo called on the Department of Financial Services to urge insurers and banks to "to review any relationships they may have with the National Rifle Association," and it appears that, in the wake of all the school shootings, a number of financial institutions have heeded his call.  Taking a page from the NRA handbook, the twitter verse has responded accordingly, expressing “thoughts and prayers” while hoping that the NRA really is circling the drain.  Sadly, the NRA will probably survive in one form or another as soon as its leaders figure out a way to deposit all of those contributions that are probably rolling in in response to their woeful pleas.  The NRA is also facing a few problems on its Russian front.  As more information emerges about Maria Butina and her contacts and activities in the US, its quite possible that one or more NRA officials might find themselves facing an indictment or two.  Journalist David Corn reports that the recent leadership change at the NRA, one that involved the quick ascension of Oliver North of Iran Contra fame to the presidency, took place in an atypically harried manner because of concerns over Butina’s impending indictment. North replaced NRA’s now former president Peter Brownell who may have had too much history with Butina and her shenanigans.   

Manafort’s Tribulations: Last week, one of Paul Manafort’s accountants testified that she falsified some financial documents at his and his associate Rick Gates’ request in order to help them cover up their dire financial straits so that they could obtain some very large bank loans.  Another one of their accountants said that he refused a similar request.  For the most part the testimony given so far has shown that in addition to having peculiar sartorial preferences Manafort was very involved in the illegal manipulation of his financial information.  In all likelihood, Rick Gates will testify this week.  Manafort’s lawyers will try to paint him as a liar who is inventing stories to get away with his own misdeeds.  Mueller’s team will argue that all of last week’s testimony combined with a truly damning paper trail as well as those pictures of Manafort’s wardrobe and multiple homes, prove that he was the architect of his crimes and needed money desperately to maintain his lifestyle.  So far no one has seen any pictures of Manafort donning his Ostrich vest, but keep tuned, its only a matter of time.  

Other News:  Another special election takes place tomorrow in Ohio pitting Republican Troy Balderson against Democrat Danny O’Connor.  The winner will replace Pat Tiberi, the incumbent Republican who stepped down in January  in frustration over the current state of his party.  This election is getting a lot of attention primarily because this is a historically Republican District, a district that at one point was represented by Ohio’s outgoing and very outspoken Governor John Kasich.  The election should have been an easy win for the Republican candidate but at this point, if polling is to be believed, the election appears to be a toss-up which explains why Trump was out in Ohio doing his some of his stand-up shtick this weekend.  Kasich, typically one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics has also endorsed Balderson.  Whoever wins will then have to run again in November so this election is more about optics than anything else.  Speaking about optics, I’d also like to address the whole Q controversy.  If you’ve been watching any Trump rallies you’ve probably noticed that a number of people have shown up with big Qs emblazoned on their shirts.  The Q in question relates to Q Anon, a bizarre far right conspiracy theory that holds that Mueller is really investigating Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other top Democrats.  According to posts referred to as “breadcrumbs”  written by some fellow named "Q" even John McCain is a target of Mueller's so-called investigation.  Somehow or other all of these people will be thrown into jail soon leaving Trump to emerge as the great savior.  Q followers include such luminaries as Roseanne Barr, former pitcher Kurt Schilling and allegedly Trump, not so farfetched given his affection for and manipulation of conspiracy theories.  Q followers are also into some kind of coded numerology and one of their favorite numbers is 17.  Interestingly enough, Trump now claims that Mueller has 17 angry Democrats working for him, an uptick from his previous assertion that there were 13 such prosecutors on the Mueller team.  Anyway, I want to make it clear that my Q has nothing to do with their Q, and is merely a reference to the Second Avenue subway Q entrance that I see from my window!