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.
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
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.
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.
I had heard from a few people that during his somewhat notorious press conference back in January, Ronny Jackson had said that he didn’t have access to Trump’s medical records. From what I can tell this isn’t true – at least based on my review of the transcript. There is one point where Dr Jackson says “I have reviewed the president’s past medical records to the extent that they’re — have been made available to me and there’s nothing at all that’s concerning to me.”
This line is a bit ambiguous. It’s not obvious why you’d keep any records from your doctor. But in the course of the briefing, Jackson referenced various aspects of Trump’s medical history, earlier test results and so forth. So I see why people may have gotten this impression. Perhaps there’s something there. But I don’t see real evidence of it from the briefing. If you’re aware of some other reference to Jackson not having access to Trump’s records, please let me know.
I agree with Jon Chait. This revelation from The New York Times is a big deal. The Times reports that soon after the administration okayed the sale of Javelin missiles to Ukraine, Ukrainian officials ended their cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and essentially suspended a series of domestic investigations which touch on Paul Manafort. Read More
Nicole Wallace is reporting on MSNBC that Flood isn’t really coming in to replace Ty Cobb but rather to replace Don McGahn. Video after the jump.
Last year, the Missouri ethics commission investigated how Gov. Eric Greitens came to possess a donor list from a veterans’ charity he founded. If Greitens took the list, it would be a major campaign finance violation. Greitens, a Republican elected in 2016, swore in a consent decree with the commission that his campaign got the list via an in-kind contribution from its campaign manager, Danny Laub.
But now, Laub has testified that Greitens was lying about that. And Laub says he was duped by Greitens’ team into taking the fall. As we already knew, it looks like Greitens himself directed someone to send the list to the campaign. Allegra Kirkland has all the details.
But that’s not all…
Giuliani went on Hannity this evening and stumbled into saying that President Trump paid Michael Cohen back the $130,000, something Trump has denied. Hannity tried to walk him back. But it didn’t go really well.
Rudy: Yes, Trump paid Cohen back the $130k.
Hannity: But wait, the President didn't know about.
Rudy: Well … pic.twitter.com/4ltYwBZwh2— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 3, 2018
After Rudy Giuliani clumsily stumbled into a new legal firestorm last night on Hannity’s show, President Trump is on Twitter this morning with a more detailed explanation of his payments to Stormy Daniels, what they were for, and more slashing and focused denials that the two ever had sex. Read More