Good background here on the new Russian election rolls hacking story from our Investigations Desk Reporter Tierney Sneed.

The biggest impact of the Nunes Memo – and the accompanying wave of propaganda – is that conventional news and commentary is incapable of handling willful lying in the public sphere. This is a pattern we’ve seen again and again. It’s one of the hallmarks of this political age. It’s worth saying it again: conventional media is not equipped to deal with willful lying in the public sphere.

Let’s consider the coverage of the Nunes Memo. Read More

Last week we introduced you to our first reporters’ Sum-Up, our weekly summaries of all the critical information you need to know on a major subject area as of that date from our lead reporter on that beat. Health policy is our first sum-up and here’s our second installment from Alice Ollstein.

These Sum-Ups will be published on a fixed weekly schedule, with an emphasis on concision and breadth. Our purpose is to provide you with one quick read to ensure you are up to date on every significant development in the given topic area. We plan to introduce new Sum-Ups on voting rights/democracy and the Russia probe in the coming week.

The Times is reporting that the President’s personal lawyers are recommending that he refuse to be interviewed or questioned by Robert Mueller’s investigators under any circumstances. Let’s be candid about what this means. The President is pleading the 5th while trying to avoid saying that’s what he’s doing. Let’s call it the de facto 5th. The constitutional law is clear cut. It’s not at all hypothetical. A sitting President has no blanket right to refuse to cooperate with a criminal investigation. Different dimensions of this question were litigated under Presidents Nixon and Clinton. The Courts were clear each time. The President has to comply with the law and with criminal investigations just like everyone else, though there may be certain areas of privilege. Presidents have been interviewed by special prosecutors, special counsels and independent counsels in numerous cases. The President is obviously guilty of obstruction of justice. He’s likely guilty of criminal conspiracy with a foreign power, though what if any statutes this would implicate is not clear to me. It makes perfect sense to refuse to talk. Perps do that all the time. It’s their right. Read More

On the House side (and to some but a much lesser extent in the Senate) congressional oversight has been entirely focused on protecting President Trump. With so many key questions ignored and evidence covered up, that leaves an ample to do list of necessary investigations if the Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives in January 2019. Here’s another for the list – it’s about Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes and his probable collaborator in the White House. Read More

I had missed this. But TPM Reader DB flagged it to my attention. It comes from a Howard Fineman piece from last week … Read More

I’d say we need to know more about. Quickly.

From a South Korean paper, flagged on Twitter by The Washington Post’s Tokyo Bureau Chief …

Indeed, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger was reported as saying in a recent closed-door meeting with US experts on Korean Peninsula issues that a limited strike on the North “might help in the midterm elections.”

Read More

Having given the Nunes Memo an initial but close read, here’s my take. The memo seems to tell us no more than what’s been reported in various sources for months and even on the most basic read seems obviously misleading on its face. Here’s why. Read More

Here’s video of the President from a few moments ago discussing the imminent release of the “Nunes Memo” and why he decided to release it.

President Trump announcing release of memo: "it's a disgrace" … declines to say he has confidence in Rosenstein … pic.twitter.com/8wCnYxLqzX

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 2, 2018

All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.

— James Comey (@Comey) February 1, 2018