That must have been disquieting news for the Trump inner circle. The White House reportedly had no idea Sam Clovis had testified before Bob Mueller’s grand jury. The first they heard about it was from the same news reports that you and I heard it from. Nothing is more crippling to an administration than when people start to wonder who among them has already turned.

We are now hearing various versions of who knew what and who said what about the idea of George Papadopoulos arranging a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. All these points notwithstanding, let’s remember that the idea that a presidential candidate would hold a summit with a foreign head of state – especially Vladimir Putin – is completely crazy, even if you have a maximal take on the Trump/Russia scandal. In many ways, it’s crazy especially if you have a maximal take on the Trump/Russia scandal. Read More

It’s a little bewildering just how many news stories are bursting out today. Mercer resigning from his hedge fund and selling his stake in Breitbart, albeit to his daughter. Is this just deciding it no fun becoming a public villain? Or is there more. Read More

It is worth considering why, when Sam Clovis was a key conduit directing and overseeing foreign policy advisors whose activities were at a minimum highly embarrassing, he was ever considered for any administration appointment.

Clovis, who is at the center of the expanding Papadopoulos revelations, today withdrew his nomination to be the top scientist at the Department of Agriculture.

Clovis is not a scientist.

We and many others reported the release of a bundle of Russian-intelligence backed ad campaigns that ran on Facebook last year. I wanted to zoom in one of them. It’s simply an extraordinary example of the complexity and not online but in the real world impact of what was happening last year. Read More

You may already have seen it. But for the record I wanted to post both the transcript and the video of President Trump’s rant against the US Justice system in which he called it a “joke” and a “laughingstock”. Read More

President Trump took time to attack Senator Schumer on Twitter. He has yet to call either the Mayor of New York City or the Governor of New York.

President Trump took time to attack Sen Schumer on Twitter. Has not called NYC Mayor or Gov of New York. pic.twitter.com/QlLC2Pvske

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 1, 2017

Often when we are trying to understand a complex story it is the facts that we are most acclimated to that are most significant. Since they are familiar, they can hide in plain sight. With this in mind, I was particularly struck by a passage on page three of George Papadopoulos’s plea document. Read More

One interesting backstory to the Manafort-Gates indictment: the pre-indictment fight over whether they could invoke attorney-client privilege to block their lawyer from having to testify to the Mueller grand jury. The details of that skirmish–which Manafort and Gates lost–emerged when the case was unsealed this week. Tierney Sneed explains the significance.

A former federal prosecutor with highly relevant experience weighs in on what we learned from yesterday. Upshot: Manafort’s strategy is a pardon. Read More