Former Nixon White House lawyer John Dean told CNN he thinks Congress will have “little choice” but to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump following a Friday evening court filing involving Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Said Dean: “In his allocution, he implicated Trump directly. And he was doing it, his instructions, that’s why the payments were made and they were for his benefit.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told ABC News that the publicly available facts from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe indicate President Trump’s actions are “beyond the stage” of what led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
Said Murphy: “The president has now stepped into the same territory that ultimately led to President Nixon resigning the office. President Nixon was an unindicted co-conspirator. Was certainly a different set of facts, but this investigation is now starting to put the president in serious legal crosshairs and he should be worried and the whole country should be worried.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) told ABC News that the language federal prosecutors are using to refer to President Trump in an indictment against Michael Cohen makes it sound as if they might have corroborating evidence that Trump violated campaign finance law.
Said Christie: “The language in the sentencing memo is different from what we’ve heard before. The only thing that would concern me if I was the president’s team this morning about this sentencing memo is the language.”
He added: “The language sounds very definite. And what I’d be concerned about is, what corroboration do they have?”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told CBS News that President Trump might “face the real prospect of jail time” after prosecutors indicated last week that he directed illegal payments during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Said Schiff: “There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. That he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.”
New York Times: “Rep. Beto O’Rourke has emerged as the wild card of the presidential campaign-in-waiting for a Democratic Party that lacks a clear 2020 front-runner. After a star-making turn in his close race against Sen. Ted Cruz, Mr. O’Rourke is increasingly serious about a 2020 run — a development that is rousing activists in early-voting states, leading veterans of former President Barack Obama’s political operation (and Mr. Obama himself) to offer their counsel and hampering would-be rivals who are scrambling to lock down influential supporters and strategists as future campaign staff.”
“Advisers to other prospective Democratic candidates for 2020 acknowledge that Mr. O’Rourke is worthy of their concern. His record-setting success with small donors would test the grass-roots strength of progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. His sometimes saccharine call to summon the nation’s better angels would compete with the likely pitch of Sen. Cory Booker.”
“And his appeal to some former Obama advisers — and, potentially, his electoral coalition of young people, women and often infrequent voters — could complicate a possible run for former Vice President Joe Biden, who would aim to win back many of his former boss’s constituencies.”
President Trump lashed out at James Comey on Twitter, accusing the former FBI director of lying during his testimony to House lawmakers about the investigation into Russia’s election interference.
Said Trump: “Leakin’ James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful!”
He added: “This whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!”
Marcy Wheeler: “Speculation has been building for months about the report that special counsel Robert Mueller is obligated to write under the regulation governing his appointment. When will it come out? Will Rudolph Giuliani really write a ‘rebuttal’ on President Trump’s behalf? Can the acting attorney general — whom Trump seems to have named to the job in a bid to exert more control over Mueller — or his replacement prevent the report from being made public, effectively burying whatever the investigation has found?”
“But Mueller has already been submitting his report, piece by piece, in indictments and other charging documents. He has hidden it in plain sight in the court dockets of individuals and organizations he has prosecuted. Many of those court papers have included far more detail than necessary to prove the culpability of defendants who have agreed to plead guilty. This isn’t just legal overkill on Mueller’s part — it’s the outlines of a sweeping narrative about the 2016 election.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told ABC News that President Trump pardoning former campaign chairman Paul Manafort would be a “terrible mistake,” and that doing so could possibly “trigger a debate about whether the pardon powers should be amended.”
Said Rubio: “I think that would be a terrible… I really do. I believe it’d be a terrible mistake. Pardons should be used judiciously. They’re used for cases with extraordinary circumstances.”
“The latest revelations by prosecutors investigating President Trump and his team draw a portrait of a candidate who personally directed an illegal scheme to manipulate the 2016 election and whose advisers had more contact with Russia than Mr. Trump has ever acknowledged,” the New York Times reports.
“In the narrative that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and New York prosecutors are building, Mr. Trump continued to secretly seek to do business in Russia deep into his presidential campaign even as Russian agents made more efforts to influence him. At the same time, in this account he ordered hush payments to two women to suppress stories of impropriety in violation of campaign finance law.”
“The exposure on campaign finance laws poses a challenge to Mr. Trump’s legal team, which before now has focused mainly on rebutting allegations of collusion and obstruction while trying to call into question Mr. Mueller’s credibility.”
“A little over a year from now, millions of Californians will be mailed their ballots on the same day that Iowans head to their famous first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. They could start mailing them back before New Hampshire holds its first-in-the-nation primary in 2020,” NBC News reports.
“Meanwhile, Texans will likely have a chance to vote early, too — even before Nevada and South Carolina, which typically round out the earliest portion of the primary calendar.”
“The explosion of early voting and reshuffling of the primary calendar in 2020 could transform the Democratic presidential nominating contest, potentially diminishing the power of the traditional, tiny and homogeneous early states in favor of much larger and more diverse battlegrounds. That would be a boon to the best-known candidates with warchests sizable enough to compete in big states early.”
Ken White: “The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news ‘totally clears the President. Thank you!’ It does not. Manafort and Cohen are in trouble, and so is Trump. The special counsel’s confidence in his ability to prove Manafort a liar appears justified, which leaves Manafort facing what amounts to a life sentence without any cooperation credit. The Southern District’s brief suggests that Cohen’s dreams of probation are not likely to come true.”
“All three briefs show the special counsel and the Southern District closing in on President Trump and his administration. They’re looking into campaign contact with Russia, campaign-finance fraud in connection with paying off an adult actress, and participation in lying to Congress. A Democratic House of Representatives, just days away, strains at the leash to help. The game’s afoot.”
Former FBI Director James Comey told House lawmakers that he and special counsel Robert Mueller are “not friends in any social sense,” dismissing President Trump’s assertion that they are “Best Friends,” Politico reports.
Said Comey: “I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number, I’ve never been to his house, I don’t know his children’s names.”
He added: “I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant. I like him. I am not a — I’m an associate of his who admires him greatly. We’re not friends in any social sense.”
Politico: “White House aides predicted that Nick Ayers, if tapped despite internal opposition to his selection, would focus the West Wing almost entirely on the president’s reelection effort.”
Said one former White House official: “You’re going to have a White House that’s all politics all the time.”
Also interesting: “Ayers himself, however, is a polarizing figure within the West Wing whose rise has already sparked controversy. Several aides have told the president they would quit if he is tapped for the job, with one predicting a ‘melee of backstabbing’ to come.”
“The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia initially focused on four Americans and whether they were connected to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, former FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers during hours of closed-door questioning,” the AP reports.
“Comey did not identify the Americans but said President Trump, then the Republican candidate, was not among them.”
“A growing number of Republicans fear that a battery of new revelations in the far-reaching Russia investigation has dramatically heightened the legal and political danger to Donald Trump’s presidency — and threatens to consume the rest of the party as well,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump remains headstrong in his belief that he can outsmart adversaries and weather any threats, according to advisers. In the Russia probe, he continues to roar denials, dubiously proclaiming that the latest allegations of wrongdoing by his former associates ‘totally clear‘ him.”
“But anxiety is spiking among Republican allies, who complain that Trump and the White House have no real plan for dealing with the Russia crisis while confronting a host of other troubles at home and abroad.”
This piece is only available to Political Wire members.
Your support makes this site possible. Join today for the complete Political Wire experience and get exclusive analysis, new features and no advertising.
Sign in to your account or join today!
Join for just $5 a month or $50 a year.
“Bill and Hillary Clinton have been forced to resort to selling half price tickets for their 13-city tour on Groupon in a desperate bid to put bums on seats,” the Daily Mail reports.
“The former president and first lady launched their tour in a Canadian hockey arena last Tuesday to an underwhelming crowd and swaths of empty seats. Ticket prices were plummeting shortly before the event, with the cheapest seats selling on Stubhub for single-digits – $6.55 Canadian Dollars, or less than $5.”
Nick Ayers, the leading candidate to be President Trump’s next chief of staff, has a net worth of $12.2 million to $54.8 million — “a huge fortune for a self-made career political operative in his 30s,” the New York Times reports.
“His wealth, accumulated partly through a complicated web of political and consulting companies in which he held ownership stakes, evoked to some the swamp that Mr. Trump has pledged to drain, though Mr. Ayers also holds significant investments in other sectors, including farmland in his native Georgia worth $2.5 million to $11 million.”
The possibility of Trump picking Ayers “has prompted grumbling from within the White House and Washington’s Republican professional class, where critics have long cast him as more focused on expanding his reputation and bank account than effective management.”
Jonathan Swan: “The most important phrase Trump said in his brief remarks to reporters today was that Kelly’s replacement ‘might be on an interim basis.'”
New York Times: “Nick Ayers has told Mr. Trump that he would serve on an interim basis through the spring, when his family will return to Georgia, according to people familiar with the discussions. But Mr. Trump, who frets about the image of a White House in constant chaos, wants a full-time replacement and is eager for Mr. Ayers to stay for the duration.”
“If the president ultimately turns to another candidate, potential choices include the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin; his budget director, Mick Mulvaney; and the United States trade representative, Robert Lighthizer.”
President Trump confirmed that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “will leave by the end of the year, capping the retired Marine general’s rocky tenure as the president’s top aide,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump had previously said Kelly would serve as his chief of staff through 2020, but their clashes were an open secret. Nick Ayers, who currently serves as Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, is widely expected to be Kelly’s replacement.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press"
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.