Author and journalist Garrett Graff, who has a new e-book out about Robert Mueller and who has interviewed Mueller numerous times, talks about Attorney General Bill Barr’s bungled summary of the special counsel’s report and Mueller’s team’s response.
The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York chats with us about his decades of experience in law enforcement and on Capitol Hill, his friend James Comey, and the Russia probe-related work the SDNY is currently doing.
Preet’s new book is Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts On Crime, Punishment, And The Rule Of Law.
Josh Marshall, David Taintor and Josh Kovensky dive into the story of Cindy Yang, a complicated figure in the Trump world. Yang owns a number of massage parlors that have been accused of links to prostitution — but she also launched a consultancy that appears to sell access to Trump and his inner circle.
Later, Allegra Kirkland joins us to discuss her recent reporting on white nationalism in America.
Josh Marshall and David Taintor discuss the Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit in Vietnam, what might come out of it, what their relationship has already achieved, and their unusual letters to one another. Then: We consider the prospect of a pardon for Paul Manafort, who will soon be sentenced.
Josh, David Taintor, and investigative reporters Tierney Sneed and Josh Kovensky explore a report from CNN that the Russia probe will wrap up as early as next week and what will likely happen to its many loose ends. They also talk about Roger Stone and Paul Manafort’s latest legal proceedings, and Andrew McCabe’s press tour.
Tierney Sneed joins Josh and David from TPM’s Washington, D.C., bureau to discuss the path forward for Congress’ newly announced plan to avert a government shutdown and to debrief on last week’s contentious hearing with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Then, David and Josh dig into that series of allegations made against the National Enquirer’s publisher, AMI, by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
Reporter Josh Kovensky briefs us on the potential scandals surrounding the Trump inaugural committee, an organization he’s been looking into for weeks but that was subpoenaed last night. And TPM’s executive publisher, Joe Ragazzo, joins us to discuss a rough two weeks for the news media, in which thousands of journalists were laid off or offered buyouts.
Josh and David discuss Trump’s resplendent capitulation to Nancy Pelosi on the State of the Union and, later, on the shutdown fight. Then, investigative reporter Josh Kovensky sits in to chat about Roger Stone’s indictment and House Democrats’ many questions for Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, which they’ll get to ask at an oversight hearing next week.
Show Notes
These articles by Josh Kovensky were mentioned on the show.
Josh, David and TPM’s editor for special projects and prime, John Light, run through the winners of TPM’s annual Golden Duke awards, named for the scandal-plagued former member of Congress Randy “Duke” Cunningham. From Michael Cohen to Rudy Giuliani to Jacob Wohl to Scott Pruitt, we look back at the political disasters that were. Our judges ended up with a lot of ties this year, and Josh casts the tie-breaking vote.
TPM investigative reporter Tierney Sneed describes the scene in the courtroom where Michael Flynn was set to be sentenced Tuesday. The judge had harsh words for the former national security advisor before coming to an agreement with Flynn’s lawyers to delay Flynn’s sentencing.
