The White House said that special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, in the Russia probe are unrelated to the president or the White House, Reuters reports.
Said press secretary Sarah Sanders: “The charges brought against Mr. Stone have nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with White House. The president did nothing wrong.”
Former White House chief strategist and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon is the “high-ranking Trump campaign official” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Roger Stone, CNBC reports.
Bannon is the Trump campaign official who in October 2016 reached out to Stone “about the status of future releases by Organization 1,” which clearly refers to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
“As Democratic presidential hopefuls promise not to boost their candidacies through spending by outside groups with cash from wealthy donors, sometimes given secretly, a new report says the party received most of the so-called ‘dark money’ spent on political ads in the 2018 midterms,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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“Roger Stone’s indictment by the Mueller investigation reveals a series of alleged conversations between the Republican operative and Trump campaign officials regarding the timing and content of Wikileaks’ email dumps during the 2016 campaign — which Stone allegedly lied about under oath,” Axios reports.
“Multiple Trump campaign officials — although we don’t know who — were allegedly told by Stone ahead of time about WikiLeaks releases considered damaging to Hillary Clinton. One campaign official was even instructed to reach out to Stone about future releases following the DNC email release in July of 2016.”
First Read: “Why does Stone talking to the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks matter? Because Trump and his campaign seized on the WikiLeaks disclosures during the last month of the 2016 election, with Trump mentioning the word ‘WikiLeaks’ some 140 times in that final month, per NBC’s count.”
“The caution here: Mueller’s indictment clearly shows collusion/cooperation between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. What we don’t know is if Stone and the Trump campaign knew that WikiLeaks might have been a front for Russian intelligence — since it was Russian intelligence that hacked the Democratic emails. Stone has denied being involved in any collusion.”
“Well, there’s plenty of blame to go around on this shutdown, but I’m not sure that the president fully understands what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, as a lot of people in my state and elsewhere do.”
— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in an interview on CNN.
“Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to President Trump who has spent decades plying the dark arts of scandal-mongering and dirty tricks to help influence American political campaigns, was indicted Friday in the special counsel investigation,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering.”
The indictment also says Stone “was contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases” of stolen information by Wikileaks.
After one WikiLeaks release, the indictment says an associate of a high-ranking Trump campaign official texted Stone “well done.”
CNN: “The indictment’s wording does not say who on the campaign knew about Stone’s quest, but makes clear it was multiple people.”
CNN has the view from Roger Stone’s arrest in Florida this morning:
A number of law enforcement vehicles with silent sirens flashing pulled in front of Stone’s home on a darkened Ft. Lauderdale street just after 6 a.m. Friday morning.
About a dozen officers with heavy weapons and tactical vests fanned out across Stone’s lawn.
Law enforcement shined a flashlight into Stone’s front door before one officer rapped against it, shouting, “FBI. Open the door.”
Seconds later, the agent shouted, “FBI. Warrant.”
A floor light turned on and moments later, Stone appeared in the front entryway.
Playbook: “One idea that seems to be picking up steam at the White House and in some quarters on Capitol Hill is creating a commission to study border security and a border wall.”
“Needless to say, this would be Republicans folding… Commissions are useless, for the most part. Washington creating one would be an admission that the administration cannot figure out how to cut a deal with Congress on the president’s central campaign promise. Look no further than the supercommittee, which wasted a lot of people’s time in 2011 trying to come up with a deficit-reduction plan. (Even a mention of the supercommittee is going to send shudders through many Hill and administration aides and reporters.)”
“Imagine the White House trying to convince the base and reporters that it’s worth opening up government so a commission could study whether the U.S. needs a wall..”
Politico: “There are early signs that the two leaders have an exceedingly narrow path to maneuver. Two Republican sources familiar with ongoing talks said Schumer is better off talking to the White House, while a spokesman for Schumer said the Democrat made clear to McConnell that Democrats ‘will not support funding for the wall, prorated or otherwise.’”
“And though McConnell and Schumer are both known as pragmatic strategists, they’ve been constrained by forces beyond their control. There’s Trump, of course, who wants his border wall and dismissed an initial funding measure backed by McConnell and Schumer in December. And there’s Pelosi, who now outranks Schumer in the party and is leading a caucus filled with liberals who feel no need to compromise with Trump.”
“Republican senators clashed with one another and confronted Vice President Pence inside a private luncheon on Thursday, as anger hit a boiling point over the longest government shutdown in history,” the Washington Post reports.
“This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at one point.
“Are you suggesting I’m enjoying this?” McConnell snapped back.
“The outbursts highlighted the toll the shutdown has taken on Republican lawmakers, who are dealing with growing concerns from constituents and blame from Democrats, all while facing pressure from conservatives to stand with Trump in his demand for money to build a wall on the border with Mexico.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “President Trump doesn’t seem to realize it, but his claim to any leverage on the shutdown is officially dead after two Senate votes on reopening the government failed Thursday afternoon.”
“The question now: Will Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans let him twist in the wind, bleeding away support little by little while the nation continues to suffer the consequences of the closure? Or will they finally move to end this fiasco?”
“U.S. officials at the southern border will begin sending some asylum applicants back to Mexico on Friday as the Trump administration implements new measures prohibiting migrants from waiting in the United States while their cases are processed,” the Washington Post reports.
“The plan, announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday night, follows high-level talks between the two governments late last year as U.S. border officials struggled to handle a surge of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty. It will be introduced in California, at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego, and eventually expanded throughout the nearly 2,000-mile border.”
“Jared Kushner’s application for a top secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance,” NBC News reports.
“The official, Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017. Kushner’s was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said. They said the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline’s arrival.”
“Frustrated GOP senators read Vice President Pence the riot act at a closed-door meeting Thursday, telling him the partial government shutdown needs to end soon,” The Hill reports.
“Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), warned the vice president that prolonging the shutdown is not a smart political strategy, in hopes of sending a clear message to President Trump that he needs to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.”
Politico: “Now that the Senate has shot down President Trump’s compromise offer to end the month-long government shutdown, White House officials aren’t sure of their next move. But they do know one thing: they’re losing, and they want to cut a deal.”
“The president is weighing the idea of a three-week continuing resolution to fund the government, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed Thursday afternoon, reviving a prospect the president has previously ruled out. Trump acknowledged the proposal in an afternoon meeting with lawmakers, saying that Democrats would have to offer ‘some sort of pro-rated down payment’ on the Mexican border wall he is demanding.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly shot down Graham’s idea, however, telling reporters late Thursday ‘that is not a reasonable agreement.'”
“The conservative Koch political network has told donors that it plans to once again stay out of the presidential race and will not work to help reelect President Trump in 2020, a move that sidelines a major player that has been pivotal in mobilizing voters on the right for more than a decade,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision reflects a narrow path that the influential network led by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch has sought to walk in the Trump era: aligning with the president on some policy issues while withholding its electoral firepower on his behalf.”
“The White House is preparing a draft proclamation for President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency along the southern border and has identified more than $7 billion in potential funds for his signature border wall should he go that route,” according to internal documents reviewed by CNN.
“Trump has not ruled out using his authority to declare a national emergency and direct the Defense Department to construct a border wall as Congress and the White House fight over a deal to end the government shutdown. But while Trump’s advisers remain divided on the issue, the White House has been moving forward with alternative plans that would bypass Congress.”
California Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, who has served in the Legislature for six years, announced that he has left the California Republican Party and re-registered as a Democrat in a move that further shrinks GOP influence in Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map 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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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