In our Weekly Primer on the battle over Obamacare (Prime access), Alice Ollstein lays out what seems to be a new phenomenon: Republican governors and governor hopefuls promising not to expand Medicaid, even if their states’ voters choose to do so through a ballot measure. Read about that here and check out our other Weekly Primers on issues TPM covers deeply.

When the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs abruptly quit after just six months on the job, BIA didn’t give an explanation. Now, Alice Ollstein exclusively reports that a BIA employee claimed the director, Bryan Rice, acted in an aggressive and intimidating manner towards her, and called him “an insidious perpetrator of harassment.” She’s urging supporters to use the FOIA process to get security camera footage of the incident.

It now seems pretty clear, at least according to Dr. Harold Bornstein’s account, that Keith Schiller, Alan Garten and an unidentified “large man” committed what could fairly be construed as robbery. That’s Bornstein’s claim. He says they barged into his office, pushed aside a patient and without permission confiscated the original copies of President Trump’s medical records. The patient has the right to copies of those records and has a claim to the information. But the records themselves, the originals, belong to the care provider, in this case Dr. Bornstein. In fact, under state law Bornstein has an affirmative responsibility to retain those records for at least six years.

Now it seems clear that Trump went too far with Dr. Bornstein and there’s no going back. Just a few moments ago CNN published a story in which Bornstein now says that that notorious doctor’s letter which Bornstein provided for Trump during the 2016 election was in fact dictated by President Trump. Read More

Michael Cohen staggers in response to President Trump’s latest attacks. Will he flip. We dig into the latest revelations in Episode #11 of The Josh Marshall Podcast. Click here and listen right here on the site or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play.

Deputy AG on threats to him privately and publicly: The Justice Department “is not going to be extorted.” Watch.

We now have the first explanation from the Trump side about what happened in Dr. Bornstein’s records. The explanation is different. But it raises some big questions, some big legal questions on it’s own. According to CNN: A source very familiar with what happened “said that the doctor overreacted, made a very big deal about the question and then couldn’t get his photo copy machine to work.”

Full video after the jump. Read More

I mentioned below that there appear to be HIPAA violations on both sides in the Bornstein case and that Keith Schiller and Trump Organization Alan Garten might be in legal trouble for what amounts to robbery. But there’s another part of the equation that I wasn’t aware of and could deepen their legal jeopardy. Read More

A few initial thoughts on President Trump’s former doctor and what he describes as a “raid” on his office carried out by Trump’s longtime bodyguard, then a government employee at the White House, the top lawyer at the Trump organization and an unidentified “team” of Schiller’s. Read More

Disgraced ex-con West Virginia Senate candidate Don Blankenship launches new ad with attack on “Cocaine Mitch McConnell.”

Here is a very interesting development which may seem gossipy but goes to the heart of our story. The National Enquirer, which has emerged as a de facto arm of the Trump political operation, has a front page story this week attacking Michael Cohen’s “secrets and lies.” Given the relationship between Trump and the Enquirer, that’s a pretty clear indication that Trump is turning on his most loyal and obsequious servant. Read More