Yates Said Flynn Was Susceptible to Blackmail
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the U.S. Senate that in the first days of the Trump administration, she told the White House counsel that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was susceptible to Russian blackmail, the New York Times reports.
Said Yates: “General Flynn was compromised in regard to the Russians.”
Flynn Never Disclosed That Russians Paid Him
“The Defense Intelligence Agency didn’t know former director Mike Flynn had been paid nearly $34,000 by a Russian state media outlet when it renewed his security clearance in April 2016,” two U.S. officials told NBC News.
“Flynn had disclosed the December 2015 trip to Moscow to the DIA, but he never told them he was paid by RT… The Defense Department inspector general is now investigating whether Flynn broke the rules. The U.S. Constitution forbids retired generals from accepting foreign payments without permission.”
“Flynn’s failure to inform the DIA he had been paid has not been reported previously. In the past, lawmakers who reviewed documents said they had seen no evidence he had reported the fees. The revelation casts new light on the White House assertion Monday that the Obama administration should have denied Flynn a security clearance if officials were concerned about him.”
Ivanka Trump Uses Fake Quote In Her Book
On page 179 of her new book, Women Who Work, Ivanka Trump opens a section on how to “Lead with purpose from any level” with a fake quote from John Quincy Adams, the Washington Post reports.
She claims our sixth president said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
“Anyone who has read even a single letter by JQA knows that this neither captures his worldview nor sounds anything like him. Ironically, the president tweeted this same fake quote two years ago.”
Trump Agenda Will Take Much Longer Than Planned
Mike Allen: “For the first time, some key Republicans are pessimistic that tax reform can be finalized this year. It has to come after the 2018 budget (its own sinkhole). So tax reform could get pushed into 2018, and ambitious bills are even harder in an election year since the other side doesn’t want to give the White House a win.”
“Massive spending for an infrastructure package will be a tough sell with the hardline House Freedom Caucus and some Senate conservatives. So Trump will probably need Ds — tough before midterms.”
“The Rose Garden celebration on the House health bill was a sugar rush for Rs and no indication of momentum. The math on their own side remains intractable. And with the Cook Political Report‘s Amy Walter now giving Dems a 40-50% chance of taking the House, they’re less likely than ever to help Trump.”
Trump Demands an End to Flynn Leaks
“On the eve of Sally Yates’ testimony before the Senate on her warnings about Mike Flynn, the President wants any of his staff who’ve been feeding negative lines about Flynn to the media to stop immediately,” Axios reports.
“White House officials have been eager to throw the former national security advisor under the bus, but a source familiar with the President’s thinking says he still thinks highly of Flynn and has never authorized any of his staff to undermine the general.”
Trump Kicks Off Plan to Remake the Courts
“Having filled a Supreme Court vacancy, President Trump is turning his attention to the more than 120 openings on the lower federal courts. On Monday, he will announce a slate of 10 nominees to those courts, a senior White House official said, the first in what could be near monthly waves of nominations,” the New York Times reports.
Kushner’s Sister Offered Visas to Chinese Investors
“Jared Kushner’s sister offered wealthy investors in China a chance to score American visas if they invest in one of the family’s properties — a deal that watchdogs saw as blatant bribery,” the New York Daily News reports.
“Nicole Kushner Meyer took the stage at a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Beijing on Saturday with a pitch to a room with about 100 investors: They could get green cards if they poured money into One Journal Square, a $150 million luxury Jersey City development from her family.”
Eric Trump Claimed Funding Came from Russia
Author James Dodson described to WBUR a conversation he had with Eric Trump in 2014 while playing golf:
“So when I got in the cart with Eric,” Dodson says, “as we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’ And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’ Now that was three years ago, so it was pretty interesting.”
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Another Weekend Getaway for Trump
“Forget the occasional skeet shooting trip to Camp David or golf outing at Andrews Air Force Base. President Trump has established a new normal for a commander in chief’s leisure time by spending his 14th consecutive weekend at one of his gold-plated properties,” Politico reports.
Flynn Was Warned by Transition Officials
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn “was warned by senior members of then President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team about the risks of his contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks before the December call that led to Flynn’s forced resignation,” the Washington Post reports.
“Officials were so concerned that Flynn did not fully understand the motives of the Russian ambassador that the head of Trump’s national security council transition team asked Obama administration officials for a classified CIA profile of Kislyak… The document was delivered within days, officials said, but it is not clear that Flynn ever read it.”
“The previously undisclosed sequence reveals the extent to which even some Trump insiders were troubled by the still-forming administration’s entanglements with Russia and enthusiasm for a friendly relationship with the Kremlin.”
Trump Army Secretary Nominee Withdraws
Army Secretary nominee Mark Green has withdrawn from consideration, The Hill reports.
“Democrats and military groups fiercely opposed Green over his past comments about the LGBT community, Muslims and Latinos as well as legislation he worked on in the Tennessee state senate.”
State Sponsored TV
An email to employees at the Food and Drug Administration says the Trump administration ordered all television monitors to show only Fox News.
Trump Wanted More ‘Slack Periods’
New York Times: “The signature image of Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office, people close to the president said, is that of Mr. Priebus standing just inside the open door of the Oval Office, agitated and rolling his eyes, as Mr. Trump beckons another seemingly random gaggle of aides, friends, family, visitors, reporters — even the White House decorator — in for an unstructured chat or, worst of all, policy discussions.”
“Over time, Mr. Trump bridled and demanded the unstructured time he had so valued as an executive at Trump Tower. Mr. Priebus, who initially outsourced the details of Oval Office scheduling and paper flow to a deputy, has now taken over those tasks himself. He has reduced the pace of public events and, like a Montessori teacher, modulates structured work time with the slack periods Mr. Trump craves.”
Lewandowski Suddenly Quits Lobbying Firm
“Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Thursday resigned from his lobbying firm amid scrutiny of its efforts to capitalize on his relationship with the president,” Politico reports.
Bloomberg: “Lewandowski said Thursday that his partner, Barry Bennett, and others among the firm’s eight operatives have used his name without his authorization and sought business with foreign clients that he doesn’t want.”
Priebus Sees a Much-Needed Reprieve
New York Times: “The Republican health care overhaul might never become law, but it has already changed the life of one American: Reince Priebus, who knew it was his best and perhaps last hope of becoming an empowered White House chief of staff.”
“It is unlikely that Mr. Priebus — roundly regarded as a steady party leader but one of the least powerful White House chiefs of staff ever — would have been fired had the second repeal-and-replace plan not passed the House on Thursday. But he viewed it as a personal make-or-break moment, and interviews with two dozen West Wing aides and Republican officials confirmed that another big loss on health care would probably have been an unrecoverable blow to an already weakened Mr. Priebus.”
Another Bonus Quote of the Day
“How am I doing? Am I doing okay? I’m president. Hey, I’m president. Can you believe it?”
— President Trump, quoted by Politico, at a Rose Garden “victory lap that was unusually elaborate for a bill still so far from becoming law.”
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Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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