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Trump’s Lawyer Says President Cannot Obstruct Justice

December 4, 2017 at 6:57 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Dowd, President Trump’s outside lawyer, outlined to Mike Allen a new and highly controversial defense in the Russia probe: A president cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice.

Said Dowd: “The President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under the Constitution’s Article II and has every right to express his view of any case.”

“Trump’s legal team is clearly setting the stage to say the president cannot be charged with any of the core crimes discussed in the Russia probe: collusion and obstruction. Presumably, you wouldn’t preemptively make these arguments unless you felt there was a chance charges are coming.”

Government Funding Runs Out Friday

December 4, 2017 at 6:53 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “Congress must pass a government-funding bill by Friday, or else the federal government will shut down. The House is expected to try to pass a two-week funding bill early this week. Democrats are, for the moment, on the sideline, and don’t seem to be in a cooperative mood.”

‘Of Course He Said It’

December 4, 2017 at 6:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Billy Bush pushes back at President Trump’s recent private assertions that it’s not is voice on the infamous Access Hollywood tape:

Of course he said it. And we laughed along, without a single doubt that this was hypothetical hot air from America’s highest-rated bloviator. Along with Donald Trump and me, there were seven other guys present on the bus at the time, and every single one of us assumed we were listening to a crass standup act. He was performing. Surely, we thought, none of this was real.

We now know better.

Trump Fully Endorses Roy Moore

December 4, 2017 at 6:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump made no mistake on Twitter that he wants Roy Moore (R) to win next week’s special U.S. Senate election in Alabama:

Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!

Republicans Mistakenly Undermine R&D Tax Credit

December 4, 2017 at 6:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Senate Republicans, in their push to pass a sweeping tax bill, undermined a research-and-development tax credit many companies use to encourage innovation, and business interests are in revolt. Late Friday, just hours before the Senate voted for the bill, Republicans decided to preserve the corporate alternative minimum tax instead of repealing it as planned. The change gave them money for lawmakers’ other priorities, but it could force many companies to lose tax breaks the bill’s authors intended to protect.”

“Addressing this problem is one of many challenges congressional Republicans face as they shepherd a final tax bill with implications for middle-class households, American businesses and the health-care system. The House and Senate passed competing bills that will now be merged into one.”

“Also surprisingly up for grabs: the corporate tax rate. President Donald Trump, after insisting on a 20% rate and getting it, this weekend said maybe it would land at 22%.”

Pay Little Attention to the Alabama Polls

December 3, 2017 at 2:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Roy Moore appears to have inched back in front of Democrat Doug Jones in the latest Alabama Senate election polls, according to the oft-cited RealClearPolitics average — a change in fortune from mid-November, when sexual misconduct allegations against Moore first surfaced. The reality? No one really has a clue about where things stand with Alabama voters in the December 12 special election.”

“For all the national attention and the millions of dollars spent to win the seat, there’s relatively little public polling in the contest. Only three public surveys in the average have been conducted since the Thanksgiving holiday, and odds are you’ve never heard of two of the three pollsters. And that’s precisely the problem. The most important and closely watched election in the nation is taking place in the equivalent of a polling black box.”

G. Elliot Morris: The media stopped covering Roy Moore’s sex scandal, then he bounced back.

Will Scandal Consume Trump’s White House?

December 3, 2017 at 2:36 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday, was the fourth person near Mr. Trump to be charged and few in Washington expect him to be the last.”

“No president in modern times has faced such a major investigation so early in his term even as he was still seeking to establish his political footing, much less one with as little popular support in polls as Mr. Trump has. The challenge for Mr. Trump in the weeks to come will be how to press forward on his agenda without letting the ominous drumbeat of indictments and court hearings consume his presidency.”

‘The Ghost of Witness Flipped’

December 3, 2017 at 2:34 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Quote of the Day

December 3, 2017 at 2:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Look, there’s not going to be a government shutdown. It’s just not going to happen.”

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by The Hill., noting he “can’t imagine” Democrats “want to shut down the government over an issue that’s not an emergency.”

Senate Investigation Finds an Obstruction of Justice Case

December 3, 2017 at 2:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told NBC News that a Senate investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election has revealed a possible obstruction of justice case against President Trump.

Said Feinstein: “I think we see this in the indictments, the four indictments, and pleas that have just taken place and some of the comments that are being made… I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets. And I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice.”

Operative Offered Trump a ‘Kremlin Connection’

December 3, 2017 at 2:21 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the National Rifle Association and Russia told a Trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, according to an email sent to the Trump campaign,” the New York Times reports.

“A May 2016 email to the campaign adviser, Rick Dearborn, bore the subject line ‘Kremlin Connection.’ In it, the N.R.A. member said he wanted the advice of Mr. Dearborn and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), then a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump and Mr. Dearborn’s longtime boss, about how to proceed in connecting the two leaders.”

“Russia, he wrote, was ‘quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.’ and would attempt to use the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., to make ‘first contact.'”

Moore Leads Among Likely Voters

December 3, 2017 at 11:14 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new CBS News poll finds the U.S. Senate contest in Alabama looks to be highly dependent on turnout.

Roy Moore (R) has a lead over Doug Jones (D), 49% to 43%, among the likely voters who are most apt to vote on Dec. 12. Among all registered voters, the contest is even.

McConnell Backs Off Opposition to Roy Moore

December 3, 2017 at 10:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Asked if he believes Roy Moore (R) should be in the U.S. Senate under a cloud of child molestation allegations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told ABC News, “I’m going to let the people of Alabama make the call.”

Trump Accuses Comey of Lying

December 3, 2017 at 9:44 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump tweets this morning: “I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!”

Axios has the backdrop:

Former FBI director James Comey has testified under oath that Trump told him in January, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” a remark he interpreted as a direction from the president. Trump’s critics have cited that as potential obstruction of justice, particularly after his Saturday tweet that he “had to fire” Flynn because he lied to the FBI (hence, Trump would have known Flynn committed a crime before allegedly asking Comey to back off).

Related for members: Will Trump Now Try to Fire Mueller?

Trump Finds a Way to Bypass His Chief of Staff

December 3, 2017 at 9:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “The president on occasion has called White House aides to the private residence in the evening, where he makes assignments and asks them not tell Mr. Kelly about the plans, according to several people familiar with the matter. At least once, aides have declined to carry out the requested task so as not to run afoul of Mr. Kelly, one of these people said.”

“The president, who values counsel from an informal group of confidants outside the White House, also sometimes bypasses the normal scheduling for phone calls that give other White House staff, including Mr. Kelly, some control and influence over who the president talks to and when.”

Gutting Social Security and Medicare Is Next

December 3, 2017 at 9:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Republican congressional leaders claim the goal of their tax bill is to spur economic growth. But as Ronald Reagan economic adviser Bruce Bartlett wrote in the Washington Post last month:

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Kushner Still Can’t Get His Security Clearance

December 3, 2017 at 8:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Jared Kushner is a security risk embedded in the West Wing since he still hasn’t passed a comprehensive background investigation required of anyone seeking a permanent security clearance—and no one will question the president’s decision to put his son-in-law in a crucial government role,” experts and officials tell Newsweek.

“Newsweek spoke with seven of the nation’s leading law firms specializing in security clearance law, with clients throughout the Trump administration and federal government. All seven said Kushner’s security clearance should be suspended until investigators can determine whether his failures to disclose information were intentional. Meanwhile, the White House has claimed the delay in Kushner’s clearance is normal due to a backlog in applications.“

Was Michael Flynn Asked to Wear a Wire?

December 3, 2017 at 8:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Guardian: “Section eight of the deal reached by Donald Trump’s former national security adviser in the inquiry into Russian meddling in the US election is entitled ‘cooperation.’ It specifies that as well as answering questions and submitting to government-administered polygraph tests, Flynn’s cooperation ‘may include … participating in covert law enforcement activities.’”

“Long-time students of federal law enforcement practices agreed, speaking anonymously, that ‘covert law enforcement activities’ likely refers to the possibility of wearing a concealed wire or recording telephone conversations with other potential suspects. It is not known whether Flynn has worn a wire at any time.”