Archives for May 2017

Jonathan Swan: “Most WH officials I’ve spoken to privately this week are closer to being numb than panicked. Those who went through the campaign with Trump are numb to the crises and thought so many times before that this would be the one to break Trump. They’ve been wrong so many times before — the vast majority of Trump campaign staff, no matter their public posturing, thought Clinton would crush him.”

“They view their boss as completely undisciplined and self-destructive. They’re exasperated by him … They’re sick and tired of the media feeding frenzy. But even in their most frustrated moments, they’ll admit that Trump has got some special resilience that they can’t begin to understand. A coat of protection that almost seems supernatural to them.”

“The Trump administration is exploring whether it can use an obscure ethics rule to undermine the special counsel investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign team and Russia,” Reuters reports.

“Within hours of Mueller’s appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said. An executive order signed by Trump in January extended that period to two years.”

“Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation.”

“White House lawyers have begun researching impeachment procedures in an effort to prepare for what officials still believe is a distant possibility that President Trump could have to fend off attempts to remove him from office,” two people briefed on the discussions tell CNN.

“Investigators into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections are now also probing whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up, according to members of Congress who were briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,” McClatchy reports.

“That avenue of investigation was added in recent weeks after assertions by former FBI Director James Comey that President Donald Trump had tried to dissuade him from pressing an investigation into the actions of Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, members of Congress said, though it was not clear whom that part of the probe might target.”

“The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government,” the Washington Post reports.

“The revelation comes as the investigation also appears to be entering a more overtly active phase… The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks.”

“The sources emphasized that investigators remain keenly interested in people who previously wielded influence in the Trump campaign and administration but are no longer part of it, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.”

President Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office this month that firing the FBI Director James Comey had relieved “great pressure” on him, the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

He added: “I’m not under investigation.”

“The conversation, during a May 10 meeting — the day after he fired Mr. Comey — reinforces the notion that Mr. Trump dismissed him primarily because of the bureau’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives.”

President Trump’s attorneys “initially wanted him to submit an updated financial disclosure without certifying the information as true, according to correspondence with the Office of Government Ethics,” the AP reports.

“Attorney Sheri Dillon said she saw no need for Trump to sign his 2016 personal financial disclosure because he is filing voluntarily this year. But OGE director Walter Shaub said his office would only work with Dillon if she agreed to follow the typical process of having Trump make the certification.”