Family Outing

London Fields:  In some ways Trump is an overachiever.  Instead of taking only his favorite daughter to work, he brought all his adult kids, even Tiffany, to London to meet the Queen.  And why not, we’re paying.  His inflated traveling squad also included Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, Steve Mnuchin and his “let them eat cake” wife Louise Linton, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and for no particular reason his good buddy Chris Ruddy, the CEO of conservative media organization Newsmax.  Having Ruddy by his side didn’t stop him from erupting when he was reminded once again that ATT owned CNN International is the dominant US news provider outside of the US so he tweeted “@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” He followed up that tweet with a call for a boycott of ATT by tweeting his belief “that if people stoped (his spelling error, not mine) using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News!” Fortunately, no one cared, ATT’s stock didn’t wilt and George Conway who did not accompany his wife to Buckingham Palace tweeted that Trump’s ATT slam probably did more to help ATT at the expense of Verizon.   On the positive front, aside from insulting Duchess Meghan and waging war with the Mayor of London, Trump behaved yesterday, but today’s a new day, he’s still got plenty of time to say or do something rude and with all those anti-Trump demonstrators hanging in London and the baby blimp in the air, expect something, soon.

Judicial News:  Yesterday the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s request to fast track a decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).  As a result lower court rulings blocking the program from ending will continue to stand at least for the time being.   The court still hasn’t ruled on the case involving the inclusion of a citizenship question in the census, although a ruling on that issue is still expected by the of the month. The Justice Department responded to last week’s allegations that the Court, Congress and the public had been misled about genesis of that nefarious addition to the census questionnaire by asserting that connections to the work of the now deceased Republican operative Thomas Hofeller were fake saying  “There is no smoking gun here; only smoke and mirrors,” attacking those arguing against the inclusion of the citizenship question for propagating one of those fake news, conspiracy theories.  However, they didn’t explain how sections of Hofeller’s writings made it into the draft request for the citizenship question in the first place.  The administration did get one piece of good news yesterday when Judge Trevor McFadden of the Washington DC District Court judge rejected an effort by House Democrats to block Trump's use of emergency powers to reprogram military funds for his border wall.  Calling the case a political turf war over whether one chamber of Congress has the “constitutional means” to conscript the Judiciary in its battle with the president over the implementation of legislation, the judge concluded that the Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the House’s claims.  For now at least the ruling will not have any “immediate practical consequences” because other groups have already secured an order blocking” Trump from proceeding.

Congressional Front:  With Congress back in session the House was finally able to pass the much awaited Disaster Bill, the one already passed by the Senate.  The bill doesn’t include any of Trump’s extra wall funding money but does include funds for Puerto Rico.  A somewhat confused Trump, who appears to have forgotten that the bill already passed the Senate, promised he’d sign it once it is voted on in the Senate.  Hopefully, he will actually remember that he agreed to it’s terms and won’t try to renegotiate for more wall funding or less Puerto Rico money.  Frustrated by their inability to get any of the people they really want to come testify the House Judiciary Committee is now planning to hold a series of hearings with some other characters.  To that end they’ve scheduled a hearing for June 10 featuring Nixon’s former White House counsel, John Dean, whose Watergate era testimony contributed significantly to the end of Nixon’s presidency.  Dean will be featured on a panel that will also include former US attorneys and legal experts discussing former Special Counsel Mueller's evidence that Trump repeatedly attempted to obstruct or constrain his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Committee chairman Nadler explained this approach saying   “While the White House continues to cover up and stonewall, and to prevent the American people from knowing the truth, we will continue to move forward with our investigation.”  As to some of those uncooperative players, the House is expected to vote on June 11 on whether to hold Attorney General Barr and former White House counsel McGahn in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas.  The resolution “will authorize the Judiciary Committee to pursue civil action to seek enforcement of its subpoenas in federal court. It also authorizes House Committees that have issued subpoenas as part of their oversight and investigation responsibilities to seek civil enforcement of those subpoenas when they are ignored."  That last part of the statement may ensnare Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s for his failure to provide Trump’s tax returns and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over his failing to own up to his true motives for screwing around with the census questionnaire.  

Only the Best: UAE lobbyist George Nader, a Trump Middle East advisor ensnared in, and in his case, by the Mueller investigation, was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges as he stepped off of a plane at JFK airport.  Those charges relate to some not so nice photos that were found on one of his phones early in the Mueller investigation.   Apparently he had been indicted a while ago but hadn’t been nabbed because he was out of the country.  Nader’s got a rather storied past, this isn’t the first time he’s been caught with child pornography.  Among other things he provided Mueller’s team with testimony about Blackwater founder/ Betsy DeVos’s brother Erik Prince’s Seychelles meeting with a Russian banker linked to Putin.  Nader’s description of that meeting and his related testimony contradicted what Prince told investigators and Congress but at least so far Prince has managed to avoid getting into legal trouble over his “misrepresentations.”  It looks like Nader isn’t as lucky.