“Russian officials say Moscow will continue to support a Russian woman in custody in the United States who has pleaded guilty to acting as a covert agent of the Russian government, even though it rejects that claim,” CBS News reports.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian news agencies on Friday that he ‘understands’ why Maria Butina pleaded guilty, quoting what he described as ‘torturous’ prison conditions.”
The U.S. Senate rebuked Saudi Arabia and President Trump over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with a vote to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen, the Washington Post reports.
Thursday’s action is largely symbolic, as the resolution is dead on arrival in the House, where lawmakers blocked such a measure from being voted on this year.
“A Russian gun rights activist pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July,” the Washington Post reports.
“Maria Butina, 30, became the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence U.S. policy in the run-up and through the 2016 election as a foreign agent, agreeing to cooperate in a plea deal with U.S. investigators in exchange for less prison time.”
President Trump tweeted that “Mexico is paying for the wall” through savings to the U.S. in new trade deal.
Said Trump: “I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall. This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!”
“Over the past year, the indictments, convictions, and guilty pleas have largely been connected, in one way or another, to Russia. But now, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office is preparing to reveal to the public a different side of his investigation. In court filings that are set to drop in early 2019, prosecutors will begin to unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence American politics,” three sources familiar with this side of the probe told the Daily Beast.
“In other words, the so-called ‘Russia investigation’ is set to go global.”
“While one part of the Mueller team has indicted Russian spies and troll-masters, another cadre has been spending its time focusing on how Middle Eastern countries pushed cash to Washington politicos in an attempt to sway policy under President Trump’s administration.”
British prime minister Theresa May has won a confidence vote in her leadership of the Tory party by 200 to 117, the Guardian reports.
New York Times: “But the victory celebration, if any, is likely to be short-lived. While Mrs. May survived to fight another day, her win did nothing to alter the parliamentary arithmetic that forced her this week to delay a critical vote on her plan for withdrawal from the European Union, or Brexit.”
“She won only after promising that she would step aside soon after the Brexit agonies were over, according to reports from a meeting of Conservative Party lawmakers preceding the vote. That removed the generally unwelcome possibility that she would stand as party leader in the next general election.”
“Conservative MPs have triggered a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, plunging the Brexit process into chaos as Tory colleagues indicated they no longer had faith in the prime minister to deliver the deal,” the Guardian reports.
New York Times: “A defiant Mrs. May appeared Wednesday morning outside 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence, to argue that the only beneficiaries of a vote of no confidence would be the opposition Labour Party.”
Said May: “I will contest that vote with everything I’ve got.”
President Trump told Reuters that “he stood by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince despite a CIA assessment that he ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and pleas from U.S. senators for Trump to condemn the kingdom’s de facto ruler.”
“Trump refused to comment on whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the murder, but he provided perhaps his most explicit show of support for the prince since Khashoggi’s death more than two months ago.”
Said Trump: “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia. They’ve been a very good ally.”
Dan Balz: “The particulars might be different, but the upheavals playing out in Britain and France this week have familiar and common undercurrents, born of the same forces — rebellion against globalization, fear of immigrants and distrust of traditional leaders — that have stoked discontent in Germany and other European countries and that are roiling politics in the United States.”
“Instability appears to be the order of the day, whether in the United States or in Europe. Traditional politics, of the kind practiced in Western democracies for decades after World War II, is on shaky ground nearly everywhere, struggling to find the point of equilibrium that can satisfy populations fractured by economic, cultural and social changes.”
“Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian gun rights activist who stands accused developing a covert influence operation in the United States, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and cooperate with federal, state and local authorities in any ongoing investigations,” ABC News reports.
She faces up to five years in prison, but could get a lesser sentence for cooperating.
CNN: “Her cooperation will mainly focus on telling investigators about the role of her boyfriend Paul Erickson and her interactions with her Russian handlers.”
“Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who is poised to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, plans to conduct a thorough review of US policy towards Saudi Arabia — and that could include Jared Kushner’s ties to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman,” CNN reports.
“Accused Russian spy Maria Butina appears to have reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors,” CNN reports.
“Butina is accused of trying to infiltrate Republican political circles and party leaders during the 2016 campaign in order to advance Russian interests, and prosecutors have said the former American University student was in touch with politically powerful Russians about her activities in the US.”
USA Today: “She is accused of infiltrating multiple political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, to gain influence for Russia.”
“Facing the prospect of a devastating loss in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Monday that she would delay a vote on the Brexit plan she negotiated with the European Union,” the Washington Post reports.
Said May: “If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin. We will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow and not proceed to divide the House at this time.”
“May will likely go to Brussels this week for a last-ditch attempt to seek new concessions from European Union leaders and write a deal that her own party can support. But it remains unclear what Europe can offer May to placate her domestic critics. E.U. leaders have never had much patience for Britain’s domestic squabbling, since most view Brexit as an entirely self-inflicted wound.”
New York Times: May’s Brexit deal is probably going to fail. What happens then?
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May “has called off a crucial vote in Parliament on whether to approve her Brexit deal, after being warned she was on course for a devastating defeat,” Bloomberg reports.
“May’s office publicly insisting it was going ahead as recently as 11.20 a.m. on Monday but the prospect of an overwhelming revolt from members of Parliament forced the premier to think again.”
McClatchy: “Lindsey Graham laughingly says his sudden embrace of of Rand Paul is a sign of what the Bible calls ‘end times.’ Rand Paul jokes that their mind meld first needed couples’ counseling.”
“Long at odds when it comes to foreign policy, the South Carolina and Kentucky Republicans have discovered rare common ground: Fury over the role of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and frustration with the Trump administration’s support for the kingdom.”
“Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king,” the New York Times reports.
“Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation… In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.”
“But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting… In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.”
“President Trump has decided to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to replace departing United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley,” Bloomberg reports.
“Nauert, 48, is an unorthodox choice for the UN role given that she had little experience in government or foreign policy before joining the administration in April 2017 after several years as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News, including on the Fox and Friends show watched by Trump.”
Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, recently told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he did not know what to do in Afghanistan but offered his “best suggestion” was for a small number of troops to remain and “muddle along” in the country,” according to Task and Purpose.
He added: “But that means you’re gonna lose some people, and then it’s fair for Americans to ask, ‘why am I doing this? Why am I putting my sons and daughters in harm’s way?’ And the answer is, there’s a certain cost to doing things in the world, being engaged. That’s not as satisfying. That’s not an applause line kind of answer, but that’s what I think, the only thing I could recommend.”
“The Senate is on the verge of an extraordinary rebuke of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, underscoring a bipartisan willingness to encroach on the president’s powers as commander in chief. From forcing Trump to impose sanctions on Russia to raising questions about his nuclear trigger finger, lawmakers are repeatedly asserting themselves in an area long dominated by the executive branch,” Politico reports.
“And now the fury is so great on Capitol Hill over the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — and the Trump administration’s tepid response — that senators are deliberating over whether to pull U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.”
“That senators have allowed the debate to even reach this stage is itself a reproach to Trump, who has downplayed evidence implicating the powerful Saudi crown prince suspected of masterminding the killing.”
“Three days after Trump emerged from his dinner with Xi touting an ‘incredible’ deal, U.S. and Chinese officials were offering different accounts of whether there was a 90-day deadline for progress in new trade talks, the schedule for China to increase its purchases of American farm and industrial products, and Beijing’s plans to reduce or eliminate specific tariffs,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump on Twitter: “President Xi and I want this deal to happen, and it probably will. But if not remember… I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so.”
First Read: “Remember, this trade/tariff standoff with China is a crisis that Trump created, and it’s a crisis that he ultimately might not be able to solve, because he doesn’t understand that tariffs mean higher prices for American business and consumers.”
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.
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