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Month: January 2019

Fergawdsakes

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

Fergawdsakes

by digby

President Trump slammed his hand on a table and stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she would not fund a wall along the southern border, dramatically escalating the confrontation over the government shutdown.

Stunned Democrats emerged from the White House meeting declaring that Mr. Trump had thrown a “temper tantrum.” The president’s allies accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate. Then he tweeted that the meeting was “a total waste of time.”

They keep acting like this a negotiation. This is not a negotiation. You can’t negotiate by offering someone something they didn’t ask for and then claim you’ve compromised as he’d done on the silly “steel barrier vs concrete wall” thing.

This isn’t a negotiation either. In fact, it’s remarkably inane:

“If I agree to open the government that I’ve shut down, will you totally capitulate to my demands” is not a negotiation. It’s putting a gun to their heads and saying “my way or the highway.”

I’m convinced that this is now kabuki. He is planning to declare a national security emergency so that the government can re-open, the courts can sort out his decisions and he can blame the Democrats. He didn’t want to do that speech last night but they convinced him to do it so he could claim that he was acting in “good faith” first.

Unfortunately for him, he continues to stick his foot in his mouth by admitting that this isn’ actually about an emergency:


As Vox’s Emily Stewart detailed in her explainer about national emergencies, Trump would surely face stiff legal challenges if he goes this route. And the fact he admitted that his considerations are all about politics won’t help his case.

He should just go ahead and do it so that the government can re-open. It’s a horrible precedent because it’s yet another example of this president seeking autocratic powers to bypass democratic norms but it’s the only way they can deal with this petulant toddler of a president at the moment. Counting on the courts is risky. But giving him his wall is a recipe for even more reckless behavior.

And by the way, there is no requirement that such abuse of power has to be illegal to be impeachable.

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Trump has always thought a shutdown on immigration would work politically for him. He’s been saying it for years.

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

Trump has always thought a shutdown on immigration would work politically for him.

by digby

Trump also claimed this morning that he never wanted the shutdown fight. Maybe that’s true this time. He did seem ready to sign McConnell’s continuing resolution to keep most of the government open for a year and focus the fight solely on the DHS budget, which is a different thing.

Let’s be clear. Even aside from his fatuous declaration that he would proudly own the shutdown in that meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, keep in mind that this has been on his mind since he came into office:

November 30, 2017

President Trump has told confidants that a government shutdown could be good for him politically and is focusing on his hard-line immigration stance as a way to win back supporters unhappy with his outreach to Democrats this fall, according to people who have spoken with him recently.

Over the past 10 days, the president has also told advisers that it is important that he is seen as tough on immigration and getting money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people who have spoken with him. He has asked friends about how a shutdown would affect him politically and has told several people he would put the blame on Democrats.

He believes that the sheer magnitude of his big swinging hands should be enough to force the cowardly Democrats to slink away with their tails between their legs, making all of America dazzled by his dominance at which point he will be re-elected by acclamation.

That’s the extent of his understanding of the dynamics. He remains clueless about politics beyond the punditry and tweeting he loves so much. The Great Negotiator simply doesn’t know how to negotiate, mainly because he has no idea of the details of what he’s negotiating (beyond his stupid wall) and he can’t figure out what his opponents need in order to compromise. He’s simply pathetic.

BTW:

Trump’s efforts to pin the blame on Democrats aren’t working, according to three pollsters who have conducted at least two polls in the two and a half weeks since the government first closed. Rather, polls show that Americans are increasingly blaming Trump.1

A very stable genius indeed.

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It’s ok if a white American does it

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

It’s ok if a white American does it

by digby

That’s very moving. But Trump and the Republicans have made it very clear for years that if a white American shoots someone on 5th avenue there’s just not much to be done because guns are freedom and shit happens. TRhey have absolutely nothing to say to the 30,000 people who die each year from gun violence except, “well, maybe we need even more gun violence to stop the gun violence.”

Here’s just one example of Trump shrugging his shoulders over mass death at the hands of a white citizen:

“First of all, you have very strong laws on the books, but you’re always going to have problems. We have millions and millions of people, we have millions and millions of sick people all over the world. It can happen all over the world and it does happen all over the world, by the way. But this is sort of unique to this country, the school shootings. And you’re going to have difficulty no matter what,” Trump said in a telephone interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

It will “probably” come out, Trump predicted, that the shooter was like others who have committed similar acts in that “they were loners and they were probably sick.”

“You know, oftentimes this happens and the neighborhood says, you know, we sort of saw that about him, and it really looked like he could be a problem. But it’s awfully hard to put somebody in an institution for the rest of their life based on the fact that he looks like he could be a problem. So it is a terrible situation. It’s huge mental illness. You’re going to have things happen, and it’s a horrible thing to behold,” he added. “Horrible.”

Adding that it’s not “politically correct to say” that people will slip through the cracks of the mental health system, Trump said there will always be difficulty, “and that would be for the next million years … people are going to slip through the cracks.”

“Even if you did great mental health programs, people are going to slip through the cracks. I’m sure it’s going to be found that this guy was probably, you know they seem to be loners, they have all sorts of difficulties, they call people and nobody wants to go out with them, you know, it’s the same old story. But what are you going to do? Institutionalize everybody?” Trump asked. “You’re going to have difficulties with many different things … that’s the way the world works, and that’s the way the world has always worked.”

It’s only if the killer is black or a brown non-citizen that they suddenly have compassion for the victims or their families. Otherwise it’s “thoughts and prayers” and “whatever.”

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As California goes …

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

As California goes …

by digby

The California delegation consists of 46 Democrats and only 7 Republicans. They are:

Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Tom McClintock, Duncan Hunter, Ken Calvert, Paul Cook, Doug LaMalfa. Maybe

By the way, Paradise California is in the 1st district — which is one of the 7. It’s represented by Doug LaMalfa.

I wonder if those voters have any regrets about voting for Trump? Or LaMalfa?

Kevin McCarthy will say nothing. He’s one of Trump’s most obsequious toadies, to whom Trump refers as “My Kevin.” Will LaMalfa have any qualms?

Doubtful. But it might be a potent issue from a challenger in 2020…

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Trump is grateful for Manafort’s service

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

Trump is grateful for Manafort’s service

by digby


My Salon column today:

President Trump gave his first prime-time Oval Office address on Tuesday evening, and it was as wooden and predictable as expected. He’s not a good teleprompter reader and his speechwriters rarely offer up any lines worth remembering. This speech was especially vapid since it basically just reiterated what he’s been saying in rallies and press avails for three years now — unauthorized immigrants and refugees are flooding into our country, bringing violent crime and disease with them, and we have to build a great big wall to stop them. These charges are either outrageously misleading or outright false, which the networks dutifully reported — after the tens of millions of people who had watched the speech changed the station to watch something else.

According to the New York Times, even Trump didn’t much see the point in this but apparently, the Republicans are very, very antsy with more than a handful in the Senate starting to balk. So this speech was to try to keep congressional Republicans on board. I guess we’ll find out soon if it worked.

Meanwhile, the issue of declaring a national security emergency and deploying the military to build the wall is still on the table. It’s looking more and more as if that may be Trump’s only way out. As I wrote on Monday, he’s used this excuse before to justify his trade war, so it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that his speech was just designed to be his “good faith effort” to appeal to the Congress before he goes it alone. His base will love such a macho display even if the right-wing pundits squawk, and since keeping them happy is his raison d’être that may just be enough.

To call that Oval Office address anticlimactic is an understatement. But it did serve one important purpose for the White House: It blunted the impact of a blockbuster day in the Russia investigation.

Perhaps the least surprising of the three big Russia stories yesterday was the news that the Supreme Court rejected the efforts by a “mystery” foreign government-owned corporation to resist a subpoena issued by special counsel Robert Mueller. It restored the daily fine imposed by a lower court that Chief Justice John Roberts had briefly put on hold so the full court could consider the issue. The fact that there were no dissents caused some legal observers to speculate that the court doesn’t want to jump into the case at this point. Whatever the motives, it seems to have been a loss for the company, which will now have to start paying up until it agrees to the prosecutors’ request. This decision did not shed any more light on the identity of this corporation, which has become an obsessive guessing game among those who are following this case closely. Whatever Mueller wants from them must be important since this has gone on for months and has now reached the high court.

The second big story was the announcement by the Southern District of New York of an indictment for obstruction of justice against Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who led the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 that included Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. This indictment was for a different case involving a Russian company called Prevazon, which she represented in a case involving money laundering and New York real estate schemes around the same time as the Trump Tower meeting. The prosecutors have documentary evidence that Veselnitskaya was actually working for the Russian government, which she had denied under oath.

This case doesn’t relate specifically to Trump or the Mueller investigation but since Veselnitskaya led the Trump Tower meeting and various pieces of these cases may intersect, there may be some coordination between the two prosecutors, if only to avoid stepping on each other’s toes. Veselnitskaya is not in the U.S. so she won’t be arrested unless and until she leaves Russia, but the indictment is another strand connecting agents of the Russian government to the Trump campaign.

The big story that goes right to the heart of the Mueller probe was revealed by accident. Lawyers for Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, filed a response to charges that he had lied to the special counsel’s office and mistakenly made it possible for reporters and others to see some redacted material through a formatting error. That included a bombshell revealing that Manafort had shared campaign polling information with Konstantin Kilimnik, a suspected Russian intelligence agent who is himself under indictment by Mueller’s team on obstruction of justice charges. The New York Times further reported:

Both Mr. Manafort and Rick Gates, the deputy campaign manager, transferred the data to Mr. Kilimnik in the spring of 2016 as Mr. Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination, according to a person knowledgeable about the situation. Most of the data was public, but some of it was developed by a private polling firm working for the campaign, according to the person.

Mr. Manafort asked Mr. Gates to tell Mr. Kilimnik to pass the data to Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to the Kremlin and who has claimed that Mr. Manafort owed him money from a failed business venture, the person said. It is unclear whether Mr. Manafort was acting at the campaign’s behest or independently, trying to gain favor with someone to whom he was deeply in debt.

Coincidentally, the Department of the Treasury has just agreed to lift sanctions against Deripaska’s aluminum company, an odd decision under the circumstances, and one that House Democrats have vowed to investigate.

The redactions also mention a meeting between Manafort and Kilimnik in Madrid, apparently in the early months of 2017, and some discussions about a Ukraine peace plan, the details of which remain obscure.

This is one of the first clear reports of Trump campaign officials sharing information with people tied to the Russian government. Since it was revealed by accident in one small section of a legal filing, it’s fair to speculate that it’s not the only piece of evidence pointing to a conspiracy. The only question now is whether Donald Trump was personally aware of what his campaign chairman was up to. Most people who have worked with Trump have said it’s unthinkable that he wouldn’t have known about this or that he would have seen anything untoward about it, particularly since he was aware that currying favor with the Russian government would be good for business if he lost the election.

One thing we know for certain is that Trump has been very happy with Manafort’s stoic resistance to Mueller’s pressure to cooperate:

Manafort doesn’t deny that any of this collusion happened — he just denies lying about it to prosecutors, saying that he simply didn’t remember doing any of these things. Trump is clearly grateful for his service.

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The anti-Washington by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on January 9, 2019

The anti-Washington
by Tom Sullivan

The anti-Washington spoke from the Oval Office last night to pitch his wall again amidst his partial government shutdown. This travesty started years ago as a campaign stunt:

As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate — who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder — would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration.

Now as the unlikely president, he cannot deliver on the wall or on having Mexico pay for it. So he’s holding the country hostage over what was, essentially, an easy applause line at his rallies to trot out if people started thinking about leaving.

Trump did not declare a national emergency last night. So, there’s that. The Washington Post released a “fact-checking cheat sheet” in advance of the speech because the anti-Washington famously cannot tell the truth.

The first half of his blessedly short address avoided mention of the wall entirely, mimicking concern (between sniffs) for a “humanitarian crisis” on the border. Trump wanted money to address shortcomings in processing new arrivals, issuing an “urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support.” Then he pivoted to claiming a “sharp rise” in illegal immigration and his familiar litany of lurid tales of animalistic violence by congenitally criminal, drug-smuggling immigrants from the south, and blaming Democrats for inaction. The answer to this proximate humanitarian crisis, Trump believes, is taking months and billions of tax dollars to build a physical barrier to keep them out when, in fact, they will still present themselves at legal ports of entry to request asylum in the land of the free, in accordance with U.S. and international law, wall or no wall.

Basically, the sitting president used a prime-time, Oval Office address to waste the country’s time. Driftglass summarized the speech before even hearing it.

‘Nuff said.

The numbers are getting worse for Trump on the shutdow

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

The numbers are getting worse for Trump on the shutdown

by digby

And I doubt his speech will help them …

A growing proportion of Americans blame President Donald Trump for a partial government shutdown that will cut off paychecks to federal workers this week, though Republicans mostly support his refusal to approve a budget without taxpayer dollars for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Rose Garden after a meeting with U.S. Congressional leaders about the U.S. government shutdown and border security at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

The national opinion poll, which ran from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, found that 51 percent of adults believe Trump “deserves most of the blame” for the shutdown, which entered its 18th day on Tuesday. That is up 4 percentage points from a similar poll that ran from Dec. 21 to 25.

Another 32 percent blame congressional Democrats for the shutdown and 7 percent blame congressional Republicans, according to the poll. Those percentages are mostly unchanged from the previous poll.

Trump has promised to keep the government partially closed until Congress approves funding for an expanded barrier along the border.

Illegal border crossings into the United States have declined dramatically in recent years, yet Trump insists a wall is still necessary to stem a “humanitarian and national security crisis” in the region.

The president has asked Congress for nearly $6 billion for the wall and was expected to make his case directly to the public on Tuesday night in a nationally televised address.

Democratic leaders in Congress have refused to approve funding for additional border fencing, saying that it is an ineffective way to secure the border.

Public support for a border wall has shifted considerably over the past few years as it became a centerpiece of the Trump agenda. The poll found that 41 percent of the public supports building additional border fencing, down 12 points from a similar poll that ran in the first week of 2015, as opposition doubled among Democrats.

It also found that only 35 percent of adults in the United States support a congressional spending bill that includes funding for the wall, and 25 percent support Trump’s decision to keep the government closed until Congress approves funding for the wall.

Republicans, however, strongly support Trump’s pursuit of an expanded border wall. They have consistently ranked immigration as their top concern for the country. Seventy-seven percent of Republicans said in the most recent poll that they want additional border fencing, and 54 percent said they support Trump shutting down the government until Congress approves funding for the wall.

I dunno. 54% of Republicans supporting the shutdown of this stupid wall seems weak to me. After all, he said he would proudly shut down the government and took “the mantle” on national TV. There’s some wobbliness on this one which xplains why he’s making his speech tonight to try to shore up GOP congressional officials.

Note that Mitch is keeping his head inside his shell during this. He’s not a mgaician but he knows a loser of an issue when he sees one…

Update: Oh …

Eighteen days into the standoff over his $5.7 billion wall-fence-barrier, Donald Trump is rolling out his heaviest weapons: a prime-time Oval Office address tonight and a visit to the Mexican border later this week. It’s the president’s personal Alamo. Inside the West Wing, Trump has told aides he’s prepared to stake his presidency on making a last stand. “He has convinced himself he can’t win re-election in 2020 unless he gets a lot of the wall built. It’s fundamental to his id,” a former West Wing official said. “The problem is, the Democrats know that.”

Trump’s aides fear he has given himself no way out. “The president put himself in a box,” the former official in touch with the White House told me. “The problem is there’s no endgame. Right now the White House is at a seven on the panic scale. If this thing goes on past the State of the Union they’re going to be at an 11.” Another prominent Republican close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described Trump’s handling of the shutdown as “total fucking chaos.”

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, installed in the job just before Christmas, may already be looking at escape routes. Unlike his long-suffering predecessor, John Kelly, Mulvaney has indicated he’s prepared to walk away if things go south with the president. “Mick has both eyes open,” said a person who spoke with Mulvaney recently. “So far, Trump has been more DIY than ever before. It’s a continuation of where things left off with Kelly. Mulvaney is not going to stick around and get ground up.” Before Christmas, Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told people that Mulvaney wouldn’t last long, according to a person who spoke with Lewandowski. Last night, The New York Times reported Mulvaney is interested in becoming president of the University of South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been underwhelmed with Mulvaney’s political skills, two people familiar with their thinking said. The sources said Jared and Ivanka have discussed recruiting Blackstone executive Wayne Berman to serve as White House strategist, but so far Berman hasn’t been interested a source familiar with his thinking said. Blackstone declined to comment.

The shutdown has pushed the Russia investigation out of the news cycle. But Trumpworld knows it hasn’t gone away. Rudy Giuliani recently told a friend that he expects Mueller’s report to be “horrific,” a person briefed on the conversation said (Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment). “You’re already hearing people speculate Trump could do a deal and resign.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Jose Andres issues a challenge

Published by digby on January 9, 2019

Jose Andres issues a challenge

by digby

He won’t do it, of course. That would be scary. He just wants to hang around his CBP MAGA fanboys and fondle the fence. He wouldn’t go to Tijuana and talk to refugees if they paid him a million dollars. And, as we know, he will normally happily whore himself for much less.

Andres, by the way, is a true hero. I’ve always loved his restaurants, which are way too expensive for me, and now I feel better for having spent that money in the past. Maybe some of that is going to help feed this people (as well as all the immigrants who work in those restaurants.) He’s using his money and celebrity for good. 

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Remember. They cheat.

Published by digby on January 8, 2019

Remember. They cheat.

by digby

I can see a certain complacency overtaking many Democrats going into 20/20, both on the apparent assumption that impeachment is a bad option because it would be “better” to win at the ballot baox, and among partisans  who believe that it doesn’t matter who runs against Trump because we are assured of winning. Both cases assume that the Dems are a shoo-in.

No one can be faulted for believing they should be. The man’s presidency is an unprecedented dumpster fire as anyone could have predicted the minute he rode down on the golden escalator in 2015.  But Trump and his party should not be underestimated no matter how unpopular they are in the polls. They have shown for decades that they will win by any means necessary.

Here’s the latest news by Rick Hasen that should make you double your efforts to get out the vote in 2020. Democrats have to win by a very large percentage to overcome this handicap:

In a short unpublished opinion so far garnering only slight media attention, the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit decided on Monday what may be one of the most consequential cases poised to affect the 2020 elections. The circuit upheld a district court decision ending a court order in effect since 1982 barring the Republican National Committee from engaging in “ballot security” measures designed to intimidate minority voters from voting at the polls. With Trump having taken over the RNC for the 2020 elections and with this consent decree no longer standing in his way, we should be concerned about a new wave of voter suppression coming from the Republican Party during the upcoming election.

At rallies, Trump made statements such as: “[G]o around and watch other polling places,” … “[It’s] so important that you watch other communities, because we don’t want this election stolen from us,” … and “You’ve got to get everybody to go out and watch. … And when I say ‘watch,’ you know what I’m talking about. Right?” … The Trump campaign website contained a form allowing supporters to register as “Trump Election Observers.”

But it said that the district court could reasonably have concluded Trump and his 2016 campaign did this in isolation from the RNC, the only one bound by the decree.

We can only guess what Trump and the RNC, now freed from this consent decree, will have planned for 2020. Trump has irresponsibly used allegations of voter fraud and stolen elections to delegitimize his opposition and rile up his base. During the 2018 election, he made unfounded allegations that Democrats were trying to steal the U.S. Senate seat in Florida from Rick Scott during state-required recounts of ballots in the close election.

He breaks down the issues of the case in detail and it’s quite interesting. It goes back to 1981 — when the Republicans were caught cheating of course. I recommend reading it just to remind yourself of how long they’ve been doing this stuff. He concludes with this from the court opinion:

It noted that:

At rallies, Trump made statements such as: “[G]o around and watch other polling places,” … “[It’s] so important that you watch other communities, because we don’t want this election stolen from us,” … and “You’ve got to get everybody to go out and watch. … And when I say ‘watch,’ you know what I’m talking about. Right?” … The Trump campaign website contained a form allowing supporters to register as “Trump Election Observers.”

But it said that the district court could reasonably have concluded Trump and his 2016 campaign did this in isolation from the RNC, the only one bound by the decree.

We can only guess what Trump and the RNC, now freed from this consent decree, will have planned for 2020. Trump has irresponsibly used allegations of voter fraud and stolen elections to delegitimize his opposition and rile up his base. During the 2018 election, he made unfounded allegations that Democrats were trying to steal the U.S. Senate seat in Florida from Rick Scott during state-required recounts of ballots in the close election.

Had Trump not taken over the RNC, I would not be so concerned about the demise of the decree. Thirty-five years is a long time, and many of the Republican lawyers I know would bristle at some of the tactics that the RNC had used in the past. But Trump likely has different plans in mind, and it would not surprise me to see Democrats and voting rights activists running back to court in 2020, trying to stop the renewal of odious tactics that should have by now been consigned to the history books.

The TNC will have no limits. After all, it certainly appears he was more than willing to conspire with a foreign country to sabotage the election. He said on the stump the last time that he would only accept the results of the election if he won. They will use whatever levers they have available to win. Don’t underestimate them. They’ve been doing this for decades. Trump is just more crudely open about it.

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Loose lips show collusion

Published by digby on January 8, 2019

Loose lips show collusion

by digby

Oh my goodness. It appears that lawyers for Paul Manafort, the guy Trump has been so solicitous toward in his public statements,may have mistakenly revealed in a court filing that their client shared campaign materials with the alleged Russian agent Konstantin Kilimnik while he was Trump’s campaign manager:

Paul Manafort shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former employee whom the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing.

The apparently inadvertent revelation indicates a pathway by which the Russians could have had access to Trump campaign data.

The former Trump campaign chairman on Tuesday denied in a filing from his defense team that he broke his plea deal by lying repeatedly to prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about that and other issues.

In his rebuttal to the special counsel’s claims of dishonesty, Manafort exposed details of the dispute, much of which centers on his relationship with Kilimnik. The Russian citizen, who began working for Manafort’s consulting firm starting in 2005, has been charged with helping his former boss to obstruct Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference into the 2016 election. He is believed to be in Moscow.

The special counsel alleged Manafort “lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign,” according to the unredacted filing, and discussed Ukrainian politics with Kilimnik during that time.

“Manafort ‘conceded’ that he discussed or may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion,” his attorneys quote the special counsel as saying, and “’acknowledged’ that he and Mr. Kilimnik met while they were both in Madrid.”

In his filing, Manafort’s lawyers said any inconsistencies in those interviews were unintentional.

“Issues and communications related to Ukrainian political events simply were not at the forefront of Mr. Manafort’s mind during the period at issue and it is not surprising at all that Mr. Manafort was unable to recall specific details prior to having his recollection refreshed,” they wrote.

Mueller also said Manafort lied about contacting Trump administration officials after Trump took office. Manafort had told investigators he had no direct or indirect contact with White House officials since Trump’s inauguration, but Manafort had been in touch with officials as recently as the spring, according to the filing.

Manafort told a colleague in February — four months after he was indicted — that he was in contact with a senior administration official through that time, prosecutors said. And in a text message, he authorized another person to speak with a White House official on May 26, they alleged.

This appears to have been a mistake (but maybe not — these guys have been desperate to find ways to signal information about the Mueller case to people involved in it so who knows?) And we don’t know the details or to what they specifically pertain. Still, it does indicate that there are a lot of facts that we know nothing of in this case and it certainly implies that there is a major conspiracy case surrounding Manafort tied directly to the Trump campaign.

Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman through the most active period of direct interference and timed dirty tricks as Russia was hacking and reaching out to various members of the campaign, trying to set up a quid pro quo on sanctions (and who knows what else?)
Trump can pretend that this doesn’t implicate him but even if he was completely unaware of the activity, the mere fact that he hired someone and has defended him blindly during the investigation — even hinting broadly that he would pardon him, praising him for not being “a rat” — is proof of his unfitness and abuse of power.

We’ll see what happens when this whole case is laid out. We clearly don’t know the scope of the investigation yet. It’s possible it’s a total bust as far as conspiracy goes. But it’s looking less likely as time goes on.

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