Just Do It

Still Doing It:  Contrary to Rudy Giuliani’s assertion that he would have to be finished by Labor Day, Special Counsel Mueller hasn’t wrapped up his investigation yet, nor, as far as we know, has he indicted Roger Stone or anyone named Trump or Kushner.  However, he did obtain another plea deal, this one from a Republican lobbyist named Sam Patten who pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register his lobbying for a few  Ukrainians, and like Manafort associate Rick Gates and former national security advisor Michael Flynn, he’s agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the Russia mess. Notably, Patten worked with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate of former campaign manager/convicted felon Manafort.  Kilimnik, who has already been indicted by Mueller, is the Russian national tied to Russian intelligence who is now thought to be living in Russia. In addition to his illegal lobbying, Patten helped a Ukrainian oligarch get around the prohibition on foreign donations to Trump’s inauguration committee, that’s the committee that raised a huge amount of money, spent only a portion of it on the inauguration and as far as anyone can tell either squandered or funneled the rest into the pockets of some as yet unnamed Trumpkins. The oligarch sent $50,000 to Patten, who then gave the money to a US citizen, who bought the four tickets. The tickets were then given to the oligarch, Kilimnik, another Ukrainian, and Patten himself.  Finally, Patten also admits to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee and to withholding documents from them during the testimony he gave in January.  As if that’s not enough, Patten also had ties to the questionable, now defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica. Though the Patten plea deal was handled by the US Attorney for DC rather than someone from Mueller’s team, Andrew Weissman, Mueller’s killer prosecutor appeared in court to witness Patten’s plea, leading observers to believe that there is more to Patten’s deal than meets the eye.  On Friday we also learned that foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos A/K/A the coffee boy, has offered up some fresh information in the hopes of convincing Mueller to ease up on the recommendation that he serve time in jail.  Papadopoulos and his talkative wife, who has appeared on a number of cable channels to plead his case, are kind of bummed that Mueller has asked the judge presiding over his case to send him away for six months or so when others, like Gates and Flynn appear to have gotten one of those “get of jail” cards. Mueller is playing hardball to punish the  “coffee boy” for continuing to lie even after he promised to cooperate because, as a result of his continued deception, Joseph Mifsud, the English professor who promised to share some Hillary emails and who is most likely a Russian spy managed to disappear before Mueller or the Brits could nab him.  Anyway, Papadopoulos is now asserting that during a meeting of the Trump campaign team’s foreign advisory group  Attorney General Sessions supported his request for permission to reach out to his Russian contacts and that during that same meeting Trump nodded support when he mentioned his plan.  His new assertion contradicts Sessions’ claim that he discouraged Papadopoulos’ Russian activities and Trump’s claim that he wasn’t even aware of Papadopoulos’ presence because as a Diet Coke drinker he would never pay attention to a mere “coffee boy,” even one that he once introduced as an eminent member of his campaign’s foreign advisory team. It’s not clear that Papadopoulos’ sudden recollection will get him a lesser sentence because he’s already shown himself to be a willing liar and in a room full of liars he might be the least believable one. Speaking of people with truth problems, in an interview provided to The New Yorker, Rudy Giuliani is now saying that none of this really matters since Trump is likely to refuse to release and then shred any final report that Mueller delivers to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein anyway. 

Injustice:  Trump’s cronies in Congress got an unexpected earful from Justice Department attorney Bruce Ohr when they called him in to testify about his interaction with Christopher Steele.  Much to their dismay, they learned from Ohr, whose reputation and career they’ve been trying to destroy, that his meetings with Steele were authorized by his then boss Andrew McCabe and that during one of those meetings Steele told him that Russian intelligence thought that they had candidate Trump “over a barrel” because of the things that they knew about him.  Separately the New York Times reports that starting in 2014 Ohr worked with Steele on a US project to flip a number of Russian oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska, whose name keeps popping up throughout the Russian investigation.  So to be clear, Trump and his cohorts on the House Intelligence and Oversight Committees are doing their best to destroy the career of a dedicated, long term Justice Department professional, an expert on the Russian Mafia, who also provided information to the FBI about Russian intelligence’s conclusion that Trump was and is vulnerable, and who once tried to get Oleg Deripaska to flip.  It’s now clear why Trump, who is thought to have financial entanglements with a few of those Russian mafiosos, wants to see Ohr’s career and credibility destroyed.  Also on the Justice front, over the holiday, Trump took another swipe at Attorney General Sessions.  This time he called him out for the Justice Department’s decision to indict two Republican Congressman,  specifically he tweeted “Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff.....” Trump was referencing NY Congressman Chris Collins who was recently indicted for 13 counts of securities fraud and California Congressman Duncan Hunter who used a few hundred thousand dollars of his campaign funds for personal use including spending $600 for the air transport of the family rabbit. The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh who doesn’t have a pet rabbit but does like to spend money he doesn’t have on baseball tickets is scheduled to move forward this week even though the Trump administration, with the willing cooperation of Senate Republican leadership, is withholding over 100,000 pages of files from his Bush era work. Those pages may reveal that Kavanaugh had some involvement in Bush’s terrorist detainee torture and interrogation  program, something he denied when he was asked about it by Democratic Senator Durbin during his DC Appellate Court confirmation hearing. Senator Schumer dramatically called the pre-holiday announcement, the Friday Night Document Massacre and Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar said as a member of the Justice Committee she’s seen documents that she’s not permitted to reveal and that some of them include problematic information.  She characterized the whole confirmation process as “not normal.”  Despite these concerns, Republicans are in control and plan to proceed because they really want Kavanaugh on the court and given the comments made by Senator Lindsey Graham it’s easy to understand why.  Over the weekend, he told CNN that there is a way to overturn precedent and that Kavanaugh would probably be able to figure out a way to overturn Roe v Wade. So there you have it, despite the fact that Kavanaugh polls worse than any Supreme Court nominee since Robert Bork, believes that presidential power is virtually unlimited, will probably vote to overturn Roe, and may have lied to the Senate during his last confirmation hearing it’s looking more and more likely that he will become the next Supreme Court Justice. 

Aretha and John:  The memorial services for both Aretha Franklin and John McCain were remarkable and just a bit over the top but then again Aretha was the Queen and John was a war hero and a patriot.  Franklin’s service had better music and a few really notable speakers including Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson who told the crowd that if they really wanted to honor the Queen they’d get out and vote in the next election. The Clintons managed to make it to both memorials but neither had a speaking role at Senator McCain’s which was fine because those who spoke did a fine job of delivering forceful and pointed messages.  While Trump spent his morning fuming before heading to play a round of golf, Bush pointed out that McCain wouldn’t abide bigots and despots and Obama called out the mean and petty state of politics, calling for us all, i.e. Trump, to be better. Their speeches were impressive but the most memorable one was delivered by McCain’s daughter, View co-host, Meghan who started by saying "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served" before going on to say said “the America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” While she made her remarks, Ivanka and Jared, who were in attendance though no one admits to actually inviting them, squirmed in the audience.  Also in attendance were Trump’s two Generals, Kelly and Mattis, who had prominent roles escorting Cindy McCain. Later Trump proved that he had been listening but didn’t really care what anyone said by tweeting back at Meghan: “Make America Great Again.”

Politics:  Senator Elizabeth Warren who is running for reelection to the Senate is probably also preparing for a run for president.  In an effort to defuse Trump’s ongoing assertions that her career had been advanced by her claims that her Oklahoma ancestors included one or more Native Americans, yesterday the Boston Globe published an exhaustive review of her professional history.  Their conclusion was that her ethnic roots were never considered, or even known, to anyone who hired her at Harvard or for any of her other law school positions since records show that they all considered her to be just a white women.  No doubt this won’t stop Trump from continuing to call  her Pocahontas but the fact that she cooperated in the sharing of her personnel files as well as years of her tax returns provides an indication that as far as she’s concerned the issue is resolved and whether she makes it as a presidential candidate or not she plans to continue speaking out.  As to the “new” NAFTA, the triparty agreement that was supposed to be agreed to by Friday, it remains up in the air.  Some negative “off the record” comments that Trump made to Bloomberg News about his unwillingness to concede any points to Canada were leaked to a Canadian paper, most likely by Trump himself.  The Canadians were offended by the leaked comments and as a result the negotiations hit a stumbling block.  Trump insists that he will move forward with Mexico but without Canada if necessary.  However despite Trump’s bluster, Congress is unlikely to signoff on a Mexico only NAFTA.  Lots of posturing right now on all sides, but especially by Trump who may think that looking tough helps him with the midterms, and it might.  Lastly, Nike released a copy of one of the ads from its new Just Do It campaign, the ad includes the words “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” underneath a photo of Trump’s least favorite football player, Colin Kaepernick.  The culture war rages on.