As you’ve likely inferred from my recent posts I’ve spent a lot of time in recent days and weeks piecing together different elements of the Trump/Russia story. I’ve brought other colleagues into the work and plan to expand that once we have people hired for the three new investigative positions I discussed last month. Today everyone is talking about the inexplicable news about Jeff Sessions. But there’s another dimension of the Trump/Russia story which has only become clear to me recently but which provides a critical backstory for understanding the background of this scandal and news story.
Let’s go back to the story of Felix Sater, the Russian-American immigrant, convicted felon and longtime Trump business associate we discussed last week.
I don’t have a clear sense of how big a deal last night’s Jeff Sessions news will turn out to be. And I mean that both substantively – how much does it really matter? – and more generally – how will it be perceived, what effect will it have on the course of the broader story? As I wrote last night, this is much more about Sessions’ need to conceal the meeting than the meeting itself.
Interesting little scoop here from the Post. Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak – once informally at a conference and a second time privately in Sessions’ senate office in September 2016.
Donald Trump, 2/28/17: “We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a U.S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our Nation. I just spoke to General Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, ‘Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies.’ Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity.”
NBCNews, 3/1/17: “The Pentagon says Navy SEALs scooped up laptops, hard drives and cell phones in last month’s Yemen raid, but multiple U.S. officials told NBC News that none of the intelligence gleaned from the operation so far has proven actionable or vital — contrary to what President Trump said in his speech to Congress Tuesday.”
I wanted to take a moment to put together some of the different pieces of the emerging story of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s lawyer and right-hand-man for the last decade. For months we have seen reports that the communications and in some cases financial transactions of a small group of President Trump’s associates are being scrutinized by federal law enforcement and intelligence for ties to and communications with Russian nationals and/or government officials during the 2016 campaign. Those reports usually focus on Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Carter Page. But Cohen comes up on this list, too. In mid-February, The New York Times reported that Cohen “is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in an FBI counterintelligence examination of links with Russia, according to law enforcement officials.”
While each of the first four men has consistently denied any wrongdoing, there is at least a logic to why they would come up in such a probe. Manafort and Page have long public histories of work in the former Soviet Union. Flynn is known for his support of a rapprochement with Russia, his communications with the Russian ambassador and more. Stone has his cagey statements about being in communication with Julian Assange during the election and he certainly seems to have been foreknowledge of the release of John Podesta’s emails. Despite being mentioned rather extensively in the Trump “dossier”— claims that he vociferously denies and which remain unsubstantiated —Cohen has always seemed like the odd man out in that group, the last guy in the Trump world you’d expect to come up in the context of a counterintelligence investigation or or for having channels into the Russian government.
Plenty of observers say that President Trump’s first speech to Congress last night was a major reset, a game changer, maybe even the moment when he “became the President of the United States.” I will stick to what I wrote last night, which is that it was essentially ‘American carnage’ with the volume turned down a couple notches. And a “Senior White House official” ( ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ) tells Trump entourage whisperer Josh Green, that it was “nationalism with an indoor voice.”
That is just right.
Surprisingly, the GOP Obamacare repeal plan shifts tax credits from the poor and middle class to the wealthy.
Let me offer a few thoughts on President Trump’s first address to Congress.
I think purely as a speech, its crafting, the thematic cadence and delivery, it was pretty average to unremarkable. It wasn’t a very good speech. Having said that, I think Trump may pick up a few points of support from the public because he seemed like a fairly normal person delivering it. This is admittedly an extremely low standard. But when you compare this Trump to the meltdown press conference Trump or the rageful, spewing Twitter Trump, he can’t help but seem more balanced and less threatening by comparison. Low bar. SAD! But there it is.
10:09 PM: I’ll give Trump a little credit for not being goaded into going off message after being jeered and mocked to his face several times.
10:03 PM: This is the essence of Trumpism (Bannonism): that international institutions are our enemies.
10:00 PM: I will only say this moment is a very jarring contrast between the agony of the wife of a fallen soldier and the fairly transparent and clearly political purpose of this passage of the speech, which is that questioning whether this raid was a ‘success’ means attacking this woman’s husband. As a colleague just said, these guys’ don’t do subtle
9:53 PM: The concept of this VOICE office is repulsive. Special status for people injured or killed by undocumented immigrants. This is simple incitement. Undocumented immigrants do not commit murders at any higher rate than the rest of the population. In fact, immigrants commit murder at a slightly lower rate than Americans who have been here for a couple generations or a dozen generations. Undocumented immigrants are no more dangerous than other residents of the country, in fact a bit less. Again, it’s simply an effort to exploit these deaths for political goals.
9:51 PM: The national murder rate is close to the lowest it’s been since before I was born in 1969.
9:46 PM: Cutting to the chase, Trump’s health care principles don’t do anything to provide people with coverage. It makes it possible to create bare-bones insurance which doesn’t provide substantial coverage, allows you to get tax credits which may not be refundable and also health savings accounts. This doesn’t address any of the real issues tied to access to affordable health care. Millions of people will lose coverage.