Idea Transcript
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Trump Will Likely Pardon Scooter Libby (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/trump-willlikely-pardon-scooter-libby/) President Trump is poised to pardon Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trumppoised-pardon-scooter-libby-dick-cheneys/story?id=54433032) reports. “The move would mark another controversial pardon for Trump and could raise questions as an increasing number of the president’s political allies have landed themselves in legal jeopardy. The White House has repeatedly said that no pardons are currently on the table for people caught up in the Russia investigation.”
Cohen May Have Taped Conversations (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/cohen-mayhave-taped-conversations/) President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen “sometimes taped conversations with associates… and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week,” the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-allies-worrythat-federal-investigators-may-have-seized-recordings-made-by-his-attorney/2018/04/12/16d6345a-3e89-11e8-912d-16c9e9b37800_story.html? utm_term=.5a1a1b93ba8d) reports. “Cohen was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues.”
Trump, Cohen Seek Pause of Stormy Daniels Lawsuit (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/trump-and-cohen-seek-pause-of-stormy-danielslawsuit/) President Trump and his personal attorney Michael Cohen “will be filing an application on Friday to pause the Stormy Daniels lawsuit,” according to the Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-michael-cohen-seek-pause-stormy-daniels-lawsuit-5th-amendment-grounds-1102318? utm_source=twitter). “The case appeared to be headed towards arguments about whether it should be arbitrated, but thanks to a stunning FBI raid on Cohen’s office and residence earlier this week, the lawsuit is now taking an abrupt turn.” In a filing in California federal court today, the parties told the judge that the application to stay the case will be made “on the grounds that an ongoing criminal investigation overlaps with the facts of this case, and implicates Defendant Michael Cohen’s Fifth Amendment rights.”
Indiana Republican Locked Out of Database (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/indianarepublican-locked-out-of-database/) Indiana U.S. Senate candidate Todd Rokita (R) “likely violated ethics laws as Indiana’s secretary of state by repeatedly accessing a Republican donor database from his government office, prompting party officials to lock him out of the system until he angrily complained,” the AP (https://apnews.com/8a68ad589e504ab8913125a975391c94) reports.
Trump-Mueller Interview Talks Dissolved After Raid (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/trump-mueller-interview-talks-dissolved-after-raid/) Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and President Trump’s legal team “are now proceeding with strategies that presume a presidential interview will likely not take place as part of the Russia investigation, after months of talks between the two sides collapsed earlier this week,” NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donaldtrump/trump-mueller-teams-prepare-move-forward-without-presidential-interview-n865421) reports. “The prospects for a presidential interview drastically dimmed once the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen on Monday… The president criticized the raid as out of bounds in Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump aides.”
Republican Holds Lead In Arizona Special Election (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/republican-holds-10-point-lead-in-arizona-specialelection/) A new Predictive Insights poll (http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/382924-poll-republican-holds-10-point-lead-in-arizonas-special-election) in Arizona finds Debbie Lesko (R) leading Hiral Tipirneni (D) in the Arizona 8th congressional district special election, 53% to 43%.
Court Questions Dual Roles of Mulvaney (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/courtquestions-dual-roles-of-consumer-bureau-chief/) White House budget director Mick Mulvaney “privately fumed on Thursday that his own staff had been leaking confidential information ‘to make me look bad,’ hours after a federal appeals court questioned whether he could legally run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while simultaneously heading the budget office,” the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/politics/mulvaney-consumer-financial-protection-bureau.html) reports. “The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit expressed support for the president’s legal right to appoint an interim director of the consumer agency. But two of the three jurists — Patricia A. Millett and Judith W. Rogers, both Democratic appointees — raised doubts about Mr. Mulvaney’s dual roles, citing the legal provision that created the bureau, which called for it to be completely independent from other agencies.”
Comey Tells His ‘Very Persuasive’ Story (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/comeytells-his-very-persuasive-story/) The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/books/review/james-comey-a-higher-loyalty.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=storyheading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news) reviews James Comey’s new book, A Higher Loyalty (https://amzn.to/2JEUDlQ), in which he calls the Trump presidency a “forest fire” that is doing serious damage to the country’s norms and traditions. Writes Comey: “This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.” “Decades before he led the F.B.I.’s investigation into whether members of Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Comey was a career prosecutor who helped dismantle the Gambino crime family; and he doesn’t hesitate in these pages to draw a direct analogy between the Mafia bosses he helped pack off to prison years ago and the current occupant of the Oval Office.” “The central themes that Comey returns to throughout this impassioned book are the toxic consequences of lying; and the corrosive effects of choosing loyalty to an individual over truth and the rule of law.”
White House Prepping Effort to Undermine Rosenstein (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/white-house-prepping-effort-to-underminerosenstein/) “The White House is preparing talking points designed to undermine Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s credibility,” CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/rod-rosenstein-white-house-effort/index.html) reports. “The plan calls on President Donald Trump’s allies to cast Rosenstein as too conflicted to fairly oversee the Russia investigation.The talking points are still in their preliminary form, and not yet finalized.”
Trump Wanted Comey to Investigate a ‘Pee Tape’ (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/trump-wanted-comey-to-investigate-a-pee-tape/) “President Trump wanted James Comey to investigate the infamous ‘pee tape’ allegations — to reassure Melania that he hadn’t actually paid Russian hookers to urinate on a hotel bed, the former FBI chief claims in his upcoming book,” the New York Post (https://nypost.com/2018/04/12/comey-trump-asked-me-to-investigate-pee-tape-toreassure-melania/) reports. Writes Comey: “He brought up what he called the ‘golden showers thing’ … adding that it bothered him if there was ‘even a one percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true… He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie. I said it was up to him.” The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/james-comeys-memoir-trump-fixates-on-proving-lewd-dossier-allegations-false/2018/04/12/644938663ce2-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?utm_term=.b75fecdd00d5) reports Trump “strongly denied the allegations, asking — rhetorically, I assumed — whether he seemed like a guy who needed the service of prostitutes. He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexual assault, a subject I had not raised. He mentioned a number of women, and seemed to have memorized their allegations.”
Coal Lobbyist Confirmed as Deputy at EPA (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/coallobbyist-confirmed-as-deputy-at-epa/) “Andrew Wheeler, a former Senate aide and coal mining lobbyist, was confirmed by the Senate as deputy administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency,” the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12/b1bb6844-3dbe11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.6e54656e1a9d&wpisrc=al_politics__alert-politics&wpmk=1) reports. “If embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt were to leave office, the reins of the agency could fall to Wheeler.”
The Principle of Law Enforcement Is on the Line (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/theprinciple-of-law-enforcement-is-on-the-line/) Benjamin Wittes (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/rosenstein-firing-coming/557894/): “Many people will not shed tears over Rosenstein if Trump, in fact, pulls the trigger. After all, Rosenstein played a shameful role in the firing of James Comey. He’s tried to keep a lot of masters happy in his year in office, and one risk of serving multiple masters is that none of them emerges fully satisfied. You risk ending up looking like a weasel.” “I understand the instinct to treat a Rosenstein firing as different from a Mueller firing. I have been (https://www.lawfareblog.com/et-tu-rod-why-deputy-attorney-generalmust-resign) fiercely (https://www.lawfareblog.com/president-vs-federal-law-enforcement-trump-attacks-everyone) critical (https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts-rodrosensteins-testimony) of Rosenstein in the past. But today is the wrong day to dwell on Rosenstein’s vices and errors—because those vices are not the reasons Trump is persecuting Rosenstein. Instead, Trump is persecuting Rosenstein because of the deputy attorney general’s virtues.” “And it is because of those virtues that defending Rosenstein is now a critical imperative for everyone who is concerned about the Trump administration’s erosions of the independence of law enforcement. His removal, if the president can effectuate it with impunity, would shatter long-standing expectations of what federal law enforcement is, what it isn’t, and how presidents can and cannot properly use it.”
Feds Seek Cohen Communications with National Enquirer (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/feds-seek-cohen-communications-with-nationalenquirer/) Federal investigators have requested all communications between two top execs. at American Media Inc. — which publishes the National Enquirer — and Michael Cohen, NBC News (https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watch/sources-feds-seeking-communications-between-trump-s-lawyer-and-tabloid-execs-1209443395619) reports.
Former Congressman Found Guilty on 23 Felony Counts (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/former-congressman-found-guilty-on-23-felonycounts/) Former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) “has been convicted of defrauding two conservative mega-donors and funneling their $1.25 million into personal and campaign expenses as part of what prosecutors have described as a white collar crime spree,” the Texas Tribune (https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/12/texas-congressmansteve-stockman-found-guilty-felony-charges/) reports. “A jury in federal court in Houston ruled Thursday afternoon that Stockman is guilty of all but one of the 24 felonies he was charged with last March.”
Chart of the Day (https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/12/chart-of-the-day-9/) Based on the historical relationship between a president’s approval rate and the number of House seats his party loses in the midterm election, Charles Franklin (https://twitter.com/PollsAndVotes) finds that President Trump’s current 38.5% approval rate suggests that Republicans will lose almost 40 seats this November. (https://twitter.com/PollsAndVotes)