So much news emerged overnight that I’m not sure how much attention will get focused on this odd development in the George Papadopoulos case. Let me address it briefly. We knew little about George Papadopoulos until last October when his plea deal with the Special Counsel’s office revealed that he was a key point of contact with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign. Later we learned that his inebriated discussion with an Australian diplomat was the trigger that launched the Russia probe in July of 2016. He made a deal, has been cooperating and recently the Special Counsel’s office filed court papers signaling he’s likely completed his cooperation and is ready for sentencing. All of this is what you’d expect for a cooperating witness. But last night, Papadopoulos’s wife was on Fox asking President Trump for a pardon and seemingly claiming that George had been set up. Read More
Dershowitz: “The President wasn’t wrong when he said I want loyalty from my Attorney General. It’s the constitution that’s wrong for allowing that kind of a division to occur.”
Dersh: "The President wasn't wrong when he said he wants his Attorney General to be loyal. It's the constitution that's wrong for allowing that kind of division to occur." pic.twitter.com/p4VhIhVA88
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 5, 2018
Note that in the tweet I had the transcription of the first sentence slightly off. The text in the post is correct. Same gist, slightly different wording.
Today as I was writing up various bizarre new permutations of the George Papadopoulos/Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos story, I didn’t know there was even more bizarreness emerging from a separate interview Simona Mangiante gave The Daily Caller. The Caller interview, which was conducted Sunday, largely tracks with what Mangiante told Tucker Carlson last night on Fox News. The new detail is her claim that George Papadopoulos old pled guilty to the charge of lying to federal investigators because the Mueller team had threatened to charge him with acting as an agent of Israel without registration as such – the same crime Paul Manafort got hit on with Ukraine.
What on earth is going on here?
Let’s take these points one at a time. Read More
David Taintor and I look at the evidence that Donald Trump got his Trump Tower meeting cover story from none other than Vladimir Putin in the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast. Listen here.
A Director at Cambridge Analytica funneled secret cryptocurrency payments to Wikileaks.
One of my most important lessons in Trumpist ideology came early and it came from then-Times columnist Joe Nocera. Describing one of Trump’s golf resort deals, he wrote over two years ago: “What was taking place in Jupiter was an essential part of Trump’s modus operandi. In every deal, he has to win and you have to lose. He is notorious for refusing to pay full price to contractors and vendors after they’ve completed work for him. And he basically dares the people he has stiffed to sue him…” It goes beyond this though. Trump doesn’t know he’s won until you lose. Indeed, that’s what winning is: making you lose. Read More
You heard that crazy story about how a White House contract employee was arrested by the Secret Service because of an outstanding warrant for attempted murder in Maryland. Almost certainly this is some crazy story tied to Martest Edwards’ personal life and not anything to do with the White House. But he wasn’t just any contractor. He worked at the National Security Council. An online bio on Linkedin says he worked as an executive assistant at the Pentagon from June 2015 and as a “police officer” at the Defense Intelligence Agency since early 2012. He seems to have had various positions at the DIA doing general security related tasks. Who knows what this guy’s story is. But I’m curious to learn more about how he got his job and what his job was at the NSC.
I’ve been wondering the same thing as TPM Reader GG all day long. It’s a whole other issue that the President’s private criminal defense attorney shouldn’t be opining, seemingly on his behalf, about high-stakes national security issues. But this comment … Rudy told a conference in Tel Aviv that “Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in.”
What is going on with Team Trump appearing to go for the most inflammatory possible language in relation to Kim? Between Bolton’s Libya nonsense and Rudy’s “begging on his knees” remark, surely we have to note a pattern of extreme provocation that seems laser-focused on upending the summit.
As predicted, Eric Greitens resignation as Governor of Missouri appears to have stopped in its tracks the investigation into his dark money group.