Trump's trial in Manhattan

Yesterday's testimony was from Keith Davidson, attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

One of the most vivid pieces of evidence Thursday was a 2016 text message sent by Davidson to Dylan Howard, who was then the top editor at the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid.

“What have we done?” Davidson asked Howard as the results came in on election night.

Howard’s reply was, “Oh my god.

[...]

“There was an understanding that our … activities may have assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson testified.

Legally, that’s important. The offense with which Trump is charged is usually classified as a misdemeanor unless it is committed in furtherance of another crime.

[...]

[Trump attorney Emil] Bove implied that Davidson was only a few legal niceties away from committing outright extortion on behalf of his clients.

Davidson countered that he always acted within the law.

But some of the seamier elements of the celebrity world were laid out, with references to sex tapes involving, separately, wrestler Hulk Hogan and reality TV star Tila Tequila, as well as a Davidson client who apparently helped make public that actress Lindsay Lohan was in rehab.

  The Hill

Discredit the witness if you've got nothing else.

Last week, Merchan ruled that Trump had violated the order in nine of 10 examples brought forth by prosecutors. The judge fined Trump $1,000 for each instance and expressed regret he could not levy heavier fines.

[Judge Juan] Merchan heard arguments about another four alleged violations on Thursday morning, but he has not yet issued a ruling.

A Thursday afternoon fundraising email from the Trump 2024 campaign and the Republican National Committee bore the subject line, “They’d cut my tongue out if they could.”

Drama queen.

Trump claims Cohen committed all the crimes himself without Trump's knowledge.

The day ended with testimony from Doug Daus, forensics expert for the DA, who returned to the stand today.

Hope Hicks was next up.  She testified that Trump was worried reports about his affairs and behavior toward women would negatively impact his chances in 2016.  

It was “kind of pulling us backwards in a way that would be difficult to overcome,” she said, adding that there was a “consensus” that the tape was “damaging” and the situation was “a crisis.”

[...]

[Hicks recalled] being present on phone calls between [Trump and Pecker], including a call in which Trump congratulated Pecker on a “great investigative piece” about 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson.

“Sometimes he would say things like ‘This is Pulitzer worthy,’” Hicks said of Trump, drawing laughter from journalists in the gallery.

In another call, she recalled him “praising some of the reporting” about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who was also a presidential candidate, around the time the tabloid reported that Cruz’s father was involved with Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

  The Hill

Which Pecker himself testified was totally manufactured.

Awwww.  Poor baby.

 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05/04/2024:

O'Donnell has been reporting this every trial day.  I don't think there have ever been more than 5 or 6.  It was reported the other day that as Trump left the courtroom, he glowered at O'Donnell.

UPDATE 05/05/2024:

Jan 6 document release (more)

Trump lawyers strategized which federal courts would be likeliest to uphold their fringe constitutional theories; Trump White House aides battled to keep unhinged theories from reaching the president’s ears; as the Jan. 6 attack unfolded, West Wing aides sent horrified messages about Trump’s incendiary tweets and inaction; and after the attack, some Trump allies discussed continued efforts to derail the incoming Biden administration.

[...]

The select committee posted Trump’s complete White House call logs from Jan. 2, Jan. 3 and Jan. 5, 2021 — each reflecting the then-president’s intense focus on remaining in power.

[...]

On Jan. 3, Trump’s call logs reflect a flurry of contacts with top Justice Department officials as he contemplated elevating Jeffrey Clark to acting attorney general — a figure he viewed as sympathetic to his bid to stay in power. Trump spoke to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) that afternoon just before the call logs reflect Clark actually being elevated, however briefly, to the top DOJ post. But the move didn’t hold. The threat of a mass resignation by DOJ leaders prompted Trump to back away from the plan.

[...]

“Jan. 6 is a dangerous idea,” [Utah Senator Mike] Lee said, in a message exchange with [ Trump attorney Cleta] Mitchell that she provided to the select committee. “Not just for the republic itself, but also for the president.”

Lee lamented that no court or state authority had backed Trump’s effort, so he didn’t view Congress as an appropriate backstop.

[...]

Trump aide Hope Hicks texted with Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford on the afternoon of Jan. 6, decrying Trump’s actions and lamenting that their careers were likely doomed.

“All of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad and upset,” Hicks wrote. “We all look like domestic terrorists now.”

“Oh yes I’ve been crying for an hour,” Radford replied.

“Not being dramatic but looks like we are all fucked,” Hicks continued.

[...]

Hicks expressed outrage about [Trump's] attack on Vice President Mike Pence in the midst of the violence. “Wtf is wrong with him?” she wrote.

  Politico

Hicks had been closely involved with Trump for years. Did she really not know?

[General Mark] Milley’s 300-page interview transcript is jammed with some of the most explosive news of the Jan. 6 committee’s entire investigation. In one exchange [...] he said he had to dissuade Trump administration figures from a suggestion that retired military officers who wrote op-eds critical of Trump should be recalled and court-martialed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jan 6 Final Hearing

As expected, the Committee has made criminal referrals to the DOJ in its final hearing on the January 6 capitol attack.

The referrals, unlike the committee’s contempt of Congress recommendations, do not need the approval of the full House. Like the contempt referrals, they cannot force prosecutors to charge or even start an investigation against anyone. Publicly known subpoenas and witness appearances, though, suggest that Trump and anyone else likely to be referred by the committee are already under active criminal investigation.

[...]

The committee’s last act is likely to be the release of its final report this week, possibly on Wednesday. It plans to release an executive summary of the report Monday, following the hearing.

   MSN

Four criminal referral counts against "Trump and others."

The House Jan. 6 committee has decided to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiring to make false statements, and insurrection.

  MSNBC

A live-blog report is at that MSNBC link.

The Committee also made referrals to the House Ethics Committee of Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, and Kevin McCarthy for refusing to comply with subpoenas. I don't think there's enough time for that committee to do anything, however, as the Republicans take over the House on January 3, and I expect them to dismiss the referrals.

John Eastman, Trump's skeezy lawyer, was criminally referred to the DOJ for obstruction of an official government proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. I don't know yet, but I think Jeffrey Clark may be referred for some of the crimes as well. The hearing did not give names other than Trump. They merely said, "and others."

The new evidence offered in this last hearing consisted of a couple of clips of Trump adviser Hope Hicks testifying before the committee. Her testimony came after the last hearing in October (seems like so much longer ago), as I'm sure she decided it was time to come clean before ending up in the grinder herself. She - or at least her attorneys - can read handwriting on the wall. All they showed us, however, was that she claims she tried to convince Trump before January 6 to put out word the people coming to the capitol should remain peaceful. At least she said she told then-Trump attorney Eric Herschmann, and he said he'd already tried and Trump refused.

Live updates as the hearing was happening can also be read here at NBC News. 

The 154-page (includes 50 pages of footnotes) executive summary was out ahead of the hearing.

The one thing I feel fairly certain about is action by the DOJ on the count of inciting or assisting an insurrection, since they've already tried and convicted people on the charge of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government and of obstructing an official proceeding, and Trump very obviously incited AND assisted (if only by refusing to do anything about it).  And, incidentally, that is the provision of the Constitution that prevents someone from holding office if found guilty.

That's what makes me think it's the one charge the DOJ will take up, assuming people would be willing to prevent him from holding office even if they're not willing to send him to jail.  I don't think this country is ready (or maybe ever will be) to send a president to jail.  That would be like admitting we're no better than a third world country.  And, by God, we're THE USA!

Kind of cool that the room in which they held the hearing was recently renamed...

I wonder if the asshole Republicans will try to change that when they take over the House in January.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  And so begins the riling up of "his" people again.

Jan 6 Committee still hauling 'em in

Oooh, is that Stephen Miller walking with Hope Hicks?

Will we be told if he tests positive?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 10/6:

Another DC inner circle case of Covid-19

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Yes, the "Pee Tape" is back in the news

Yes, that IS interesting.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Roberts Court & Corruption

Everyone needs to listen to this podcast featuring Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discussing the current state of Congressional legislation and Supreme Court malfeasance (my word).  Be warned, however, that it is disheartening (Renato's word - I would have used depressing AF).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Escaping justice by virtue of being president

On Thursday, in New York, the FBI unsealed a treasure trove of documents related to its investigation of how the president* and Cohen bought off Stormy Daniels in the middle of a presidential campaign. The reason the FBI could do this is because the actual investigation has been brought to an abrupt end. However, there is no question now that the FBI believed that the President* of the United States was involved in paying off a former mistress and, very likely, a lot of people in his inner circle have been lying about it in a variety of law-enforcement forums ever since.

  Charles P Pierce

Newly released court documents show Michael Cohen kept his boss in the know as he hammered out a deal with Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

  Politico

Yeah, I know. You're shocked.

From start to finish, Trump was in regular contact with his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, who arranged the payment. In October, Trump was brought in on a conference call with his longtime communications adviser, Hope Hicks, to discuss efforts to purchase and kill Daniels’ story. Over the coming weeks, Trump had numerous phone calls with Cohen as he went back and forth with Daniels’ attorney. And days before the November election, after The Wall Street Journal published a story detailing a similar hush-payment Cohen also made during the campaign to Playboy model Karen McDougal, Cohen texted “he’s pissed,” an apparent reference to Trump.

And, on the orders of Trump, Hope Hicks has refused to testify before Congress.

The newly unredacted portions of the applications [for search warrants] show the FBI special agents detailing how the hush-money agreement was made — and how Cohen appeared to keep Trump in the know about the deal every step of the way. Cohen is now serving three years in prison for a series of campaign finance, tax fraud and lying charges.

And Trump is president!

Among the items also released on Thursday is a letter sent earlier this week by Audrey Strauss, the lead U.S. attorney in New York on the Cohen case, notifying the judge that the government’s probe had concluded into who else might be criminally liable for the campaign finance violations to which the former Trump campaign lawyer has already pleaded guilty, as well as whether anyone else gave false statements or obstructed justice.

While Strauss made no mention of any new charges, legal experts told POLITICO on Wednesday that the government’s confirmation that this portion of its investigation is over suggests no one else from the Trump Organization faces legal liability.

[...]

On Oct. 8, 2016, the day the [Access Hollywood] tape was released, Hicks, then the Trump campaign press secretary, called Cohen. Sixteen seconds later, Trump himself was dialed into the call, which continued for over four minutes. It was the first call Cohen had received or made to Hicks in at least several weeks, and Cohen and Trump had spoken only about once a month prior to that, according to the FBI. Cohen and Hicks spoke again for about two minutes after the call with Trump ended.

In case you were wondering why Hope Hicks had to resign.

During this period, Cohen connected with Trump several times. Cohen was particularly frantic on Oct. 17, when he incorporated an LLC called Essential Consultants in Delaware to funnel the money to Daniels. It’s also when Davidson threatened to cancel the deal by the end of the day if Cohen didn’t pay up.

[...]

Daniels didn’t end up going public that day, and the talks picked up again on Oct. 25. On Oct. 26, Trump and Cohen spoke twice in the morning, according to the search warrant. Less than 30 minutes later, Cohen began working to open an account within Essential Consultants. By the end of the next day, Cohen’s Essential Consultants had wired Daniels the $130,000. Cohen used a home equity line of credit to pay it, according to the document.

[...]

[O]n Nov. 4, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Enquirer had also paid [Karen] McDougal, the Playboy model, $150,000 to bury her story about an alleged affair with Trump. The payment was made under the guise of McDougal being a “columnist” for the Enquirer.

[...]

After that Journal story was published, Cohen, Hicks, Davidson, Howard and AMI CEO David Pecker “spoke frequently” about the need to keep both the Daniels and McDougal stories from gaining national attention, according to one of the agent’s reviews of phone and email records.

[...]

The morning after the story was published, Cohen seemed optimistic. “So far I see only 6 stories. Getting little to no traction,” he texted Hicks. “Same,” she responded. “Keep praying!! It’s working!”

She should be sitting beside Cohen in jail. Along with the Criminal in Chief.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hope Hicks testifies: It went about as you expected

The White House’s ongoing campaign to render any and all oversight efforts by House Democrats a dead letter continued apace with a full-blown fiasco involving the testimony of Hope Hicks, a former communications director to President Trump.

Please note the use of the word “former” there, because it’s vital.

[...]

During a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, a White House attorney and Justice Department lawyer kept Hope Hicks from answering questions about her tenure in the West Wing, claiming immunity for the executive branch — although Hicks is a private citizen.

Democrats immediately countered that the immunity assertion was made up, accusing the White House of trying to stonewall their investigations.

[...]

But Democrats made little to no headway with Hicks. As The Post reports, the White House’s assertion of immunity “even extended to simple questions about where her office was located, according to lawmakers in the room.”

  WaPo

So what did they do about it?

Democrats had hoped to press Hicks on matters related to Trump’s alleged efforts to obstruct the Russian election interference investigation, including Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey and his anger at former attorney general Jeff Sessions, a longtime target of Trump’s rage over his refusal to protect him from the investigation.

They're a hopeful bunch. But what did they DO about it?

And why were attorneys for the White House and DOJ there in the first place? Hicks isn't employed in the executive office any more.

The White House also asserted immunity when Trump leaned on former White House counsel Donald McGahn — who witnessed extensive potential criminal obstruction of justice — to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to testify. McGahn agreed.

Democrats are now set to go to court to force McGahn’s testimony. And they are likely to do the same with Hicks. But here’s the question: How long will that take?

Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told me that Democrats might have a strong case on both McGahn and Hicks, because both “are no longer in the executive branch."

“But it’s going to take months, if not a year or two, to get a conclusive judicial resolution, especially if that includes going all the way to the Supreme Court,” Vladeck added.

And you can bet your bottom dollar it will.

And this underscores what a big risk Democrats are taking in counting on conventional oversight, as opposed to an impeachment inquiry, to hold Trump accountable.

[...]

As Michael Stern, a former counsel to the House of Representatives, has argued, although Democrats currently have a good case to compel testimony, it would be even more “absurd” for the courts to rule that former White House aides “are somehow immune from testifying in an impeachment proceeding as fact witnesses to alleged high crimes and misdemeanors.”

What’s more, there’s at least a decent chance the courts would act more quickly in an impeachment inquiry context. “When information is sought solely for oversight purposes, it is difficult to convince judges that there is urgency in securing evidence,” Stern notes. “By contrast, there is a clear urgency to resolve impeachment matters.”

[...]

Stonewalling such as Hicks’s may build more pressure on Democrats to initiate an inquiry. Even moderates, such as Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), now support one, as do nearly 70 House members. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appears adamantly opposed.

She needs to be overruled and sent home.

“What I witnessed today was obstruction of justice in action," Rep Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told me in a statement from his office. “This highlights the extreme challenge of moving forward with traditional oversight in the face of extraordinary obstruction.”

Lieu added that Democrats should “immediately litigate a a contempt action against Hicks,” and go straight into court.

Democrats should immediately begin impeachment hearings.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Trump obstruction of justice continues

 Impeach.  It's clearly Congress' duty.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Two more subpoenas

Will these women refuse to comply?

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday subpoenaed two former White House officials for documents and testimony, a day after another former official rebuffed the panel’s subpoena at the White House’s direction.

The committee sent subpoenas to former White House communications director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest advisers, and Annie Donaldson, who served as chief of staff to former White House counsel Don McGahn. Both Ms. Hicks and Ms. Donaldson spoke to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

  WSJ

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Mueller subpoena

Axios reviewed a Grand Jury subpoena Mueller's team served on a witness.  The witness is not named.  But what is revealed is that the subpoena was for any recorded communication from November 1, 2015, to the present, with each of the following people:

Carter Page
Corey Lewandowski
Donald J. Trump
Hope Hicks
Keith Schiller
Michael Cohen
Paul Manafort
Rick Gates
Roger Stone
Steve Bannon


I'll let someone else analyze that.

UPDATE 3/5: Apparently the subpoena was issued to whackadoodle Sam Nunberg.

UPDATE 3/6:  Charlie Pierce has an analysis:

Here’s what all this means. This means that Mueller and his staff have likely concluded now that the entire Trump For President campaign was a corrupt enterprise in one way or another almost since the moment it was first conceived and that the same can be said of the Trump presidency*. It’s the money. It’s the Russians. The whole damn dirty deal is one great writhing ball of poisonous snakes and Mueller seems to be perilously close to untangling it.

  Esquire

Sounds about right.

The subpoenas go back to 2015 and woe betide anyone, as the nuns used to tell us, who fed any subpoenaed material into the shredder. At least a few of those people on that list have already flipped or likely have announced their intentions privately to do so. All of them except Cohen will have left the White House when Hicks leaves in a few weeks.

And Mueller likely has copies of all those emails subpoenaed from Sam Nunberg anyway. Cross-checking what people want to hide is a form of information gathering, too.

The working presumption of the Mueller investigation now is that nobody is clean in all of this. Everybody has something to tell about everybody else. Absent the promise of a presidential* pardon—a promise that is prima facie worthless simply because it comes from this president*—the stampede for the lifeboats is going to be deafening this week.

A White House in constant turmoil

On the list of ways Donald Trump’s presidency has no historical precedent, staff turnover ranks at the top. The churn rate in the Trump White House is more than double that of previous administrations, according to one analysis. (It’s triple that of the Obama White House.) Since the inauguration, nearly two dozen senior officials have quit or been pushed out. But even for a White House roiled by firings and resignations, the announcement that Hope Hicks was quitting was of a different magnitude, reaching into Trump’s own bunker in a way no other event has to this point.

[...]

taffers remark that Trump treats Hicks—“Hope-y” as he calls her—like a surrogate daughter. Her centrality was such that it was hard to imagine Trump functioning without her.

  Vanity Fair

No wonder he became incensed when she admitted to "white lies". If Ivanka chooses her husband over Trump in the Russia investigation, we may find ourselves in an actual nuclear war.

[I]n recent weeks, Hicks became disillusioned with her job, people who’ve spoken with her told me. Her closeness to Trump meant she was also nearest to the hottest flames of the fires that have burned in the West Wing, the most intense being the Russia probe. Hicks has racked up substantial legal fees, one source told me. “She’s in immense personal jeopardy,” one Republican close to the White House said yesterday.

[...]

The tipping point for Hicks was more personal, sources said. She was “emotionally overwhelmed” by seeing herself in the headlines during her boyfriend Rob Porter’s domestic abuse scandal, one Hicks friend told me. Hicks expressed disbelief at the allegations that Porter beat his ex-wives. She’s recently told people she’s no longer dating Porter.

Another factor in her exit was her deteriorating relationship with Chief of Staff John Kelly. “He’s a wartime general and he’s turned the West Wing into a war zone,” the friend recalled Hicks complaining. Kelly blamed Hicks for orchestrating the White House’s defense of Porter, given her personal conflict in the story.

[...]

Just weeks ago, the chief was on the ropes, his reputation for straight shooting in dire danger. It was revealed he’d promoted Porter even after he knew about the domestic abuse; and it was Kelly who helped blow up immigration-reform talks by calling DACA recipients “lazy.” “You know how Rahm Emanuel said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste?’ That’s what Kelly did,” a Republican close to the White House said. But at seemingly his lowest moment, Kelly pulled off a masterstroke by promulgating new security-clearance rules that neutralized his biggest West Wing rivals: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Does Kelly himself have some dirt on Trump?

A day before Hicks resigned, Kushner’s spokesman Josh Raffel announced he, too, was quitting.

Probably realized he would have to do too much lying and get himself in trouble with Mueller.  If he isn't already.

In recent days, Corey Lewandowski has lobbied the president to fire Kelly, but not yet, a source said. Lewandowski’s advice is that Trump shouldn’t replace him right away, instead holding a series of interviews to find a person he clicks with.

Like, say, Corey Lewandowski? Does he figure he can make a comeback? Why in god's name would he want to get back into that mess?

Trump rejected the proposal. “He’s too worried about the perception of all the turnover,” the source said.

LOL. Since when? He loves firing people only slightly less than he loves himself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Another rat leaves the sinking ship

A very important rat: Hope Hicks.

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump's longest-serving aide, announced her resignation on Wednesday.

Hicks, 29, has been a longtime member of the Trump family's inner circle, having served as press secretary for his presidential campaign before being tapped to join the White House staff. Hicks, a former model, previously worked for the Trump Organization and for Ivanka Trump's fashion brand.

[...]

In a statement, Hicks thanked the president for his "gratitude."

  NBC

Huh?

Trump also issued a statement praising Hicks for her service. "Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person," the president said. "I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future."

Perhaps in the prison laundry.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News on Wednesday that Hicks’ departure had "nothing to do with yesterday,” referring to her testimony before the House panel investigating Russian interference. Sanders said that Hicks’ departure had been in the works for "several weeks" and "didn't happen overnight."

Several weeks....Hmmmm....about the time her boyfriend Rob Porter got busted for beating up his two exes?

Hicks was interviewed by Mueller's team back in December.  Since she was intimately involved in all of Trump's presidential affairs, and particular in forging a false statement by Junior on the Trump Tower meeting, I wonder what she spilled back then, what she's been doing since, and whether she'll get called back.  Or did she already make a deal?

Simply put: This is a White House in crisis. Hicks' departure adds to that sense that the sky is falling around and on Trump. There's no spin to put out that. You can't polish a turd. And when you try to, it tends to get all over the place.

  CNN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 3/1:

Certainly possible:

President Trump reportedly berated former White House communications director Hope Hicks the day before her resignation, according to a new report.

CNN’s Erin Burnett reported Wednesday that Trump was angry with Hicks following her closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, in which she reportedly revealed she was sometimes required to tell “white lies” as part of her work in the White House.

Burnett reported one of Trump’s “close allies” told CNN that Trump asked Hicks after her testimony “how she could be so stupid.”

“Apparently, that was the final straw for Hope Hicks,” Burnett said.

  The Hill

Hicks testimony

White House communications director Hope Hicks spent nine hours testifying Tuesday behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee, a month after her initial appearance was abruptly postponed. Like at least two other witnesses before her -- including former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon -- Hicks initially relegated her testimony solely to events that took place during the campaign and refused to answer questions related to the transition or her time in the White House.

Later in the afternoon, after it was revealed she had addressed some transition matters in an earlier, separate interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Hicks slightly broadened her testimony to answer "some" questions related to the transition, members said.

[...]

[Adam Schiff] said the minority moved, as it did in Bannon's case, to subpoena some of Hicks' testimony "on the spot," but that the majority declined to do so.

Earlier in the day, Rep. Denny Heck, D-Washington, summed up the testimony in three words: "We got Bannoned."

  CBS

As always, this investigation is an incredible waste of time and money.

A source familiar with Hicks' testimony tells CBS News she did answer a question about whether she had ever lied for Mr. Trump by saying she has told "white lies" for him at times.

How does she define "white lies"? Saying the infamous Junior meeting in Trump Tower was about adoptions and help to formulate his response offering that excuse?

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

#5: I hear you

The man is a narcissistic sociopath. A "sicko".

Mr. Trump has said he believes that understanding and channeling the nation’s grief is a strong suit for him as president, assuring a reporter during his campaign that empathy “will be one of the strongest things about Trump.”

But interactions with some of those involved in the Parkland shooting have not been as successful as those during the White House session.

Samantha Fuentes, who was shot in both legs during the Parkland assault, said she had felt no reassurance during a phone call from the president to her hospital room last week.

“He said he heard that I was a big fan of his, and then he said, ‘I’m a big fan of yours too.’

[...]

“Talking to the president, I’ve never been so unimpressed by a person in my life. He didn’t make me feel better in the slightest.”

Ms. Fuentes, who was left with a piece of shrapnel lodged behind her right eye, said Mr. Trump had called the gunman a “sick puppy” and said “‘oh boy, oh boy, oh boy,’ like, seven times.”

  NYT

For the love of Pete.

She'll be getting a presidential Twitter injury next.

Colleagues said Mr. Trump’s notes on Wednesday were written by Hope Hicks, his communications director and longtime aide, who had briefed the president along with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary, before he attended the session.

[...]

In private beforehand, Mr. Trump met in the Oval Office with Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, was one of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week.

“He showed us nothing but love,” Mr. Pollack said in an interview. “The guy really cared, you know? He flew us in, he had a bus waiting for us, he made time for us.”

He fooled you, and you are betraying the life and memory of your child for a few moments of  presidential attention. I'd give you a pass because of your loss, but why do you think he didn't do the same for every parent with the same loss? Why does the special treatment work on you?

Mr. Pollack, who brought his wife, two sons and Meadow’s longtime boyfriend, said Mr. Trump signed his son’s white and gold “Make America Great Again” trucker hat and spoke at length with the family.

I see.  For a few moments of presidential attention and an autograph.

The president insisted that [Pollack] and his family, who had not planned to attend the listening session, accompany him through the iconic White House colonnade and into the event.

[...]

“He just said, ‘You guys are coming with me,’ and we were just talking about life as we walked,” Mr. Pollack said. “He’s a regular guy. I wouldn’t have been there if I didn’t think he cared.”

Sure, pal.

“He took pictures of my daughter that we brought, and he said he was going to look at it every day,” Mr. Pollack said.

Sure, pal.

But another participant in the White House session, Samuel Zeif, an 18-year-old student at Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the shooting and spoke tearfully at the White House on Wednesday of the experience, said Mr. Trump had done little to comfort or console him.

He said he had been particularly stung to see pictures of the notecard after it was over.

“Everything I said was directly from the heart, and he had to write down ‘I hear you,’” Mr. Zeif said in an interview.

[...]

“He may have heard us, but he’s never going to feel what we feel, because his kids are protected by the people that came to save me and my classmates that day,” Mr. Zeif said.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Look out, Hope

President Donald Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Hope Hicks, his communications director and one of his closest confidantes, amid the fallout from the Rob Porter scandal, people familiar with the matter say.

  CNN

Interestingly, Hope has recently been interviewed by Mueller's team.

Trump was not consulted when Hicks and several other aides drafted a White House statement defending Porter, and he is under the impression that Hicks has let her romantic relationship with Porter cloud her judgment, a source familiar said.

In the aftermath, Trump has told associates he feels that Hicks put her own priorities ahead of his.

The cardinal sin in the Trump White House.

Trump is "very disturbed by the negative press attention" the Porter story received, a source close to the President said on Friday.

[...]

Trump has spent the last two nights phoning friends and former aides to seek their advice, which has varied wildly. Some have told him the episode is a sign he must clean house. Others say drastic moves -- such as firing Kelly -- would only plunge the West Wing into further chaos.

[...]

Trump has spoken to his former chief of staff Reince Priebus about the current state of affairs in the White House, the person familiar with the conversations said, though not specifically the fallout from the Porter allegations. Priebus told CNN on Friday that he had not discussed the Porter controversy with the President. The two men had lunch at the White House in recent weeks, before the Porter scandal erupted.

Wow, that's desperate.

When does everything that's going on in the Trump administration become proof that this man cannot keep his house in order nor devote the necessary attention to governing this country?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A house of ill repute

There are dozens of people working in the White House who, like Porter, have not yet received clearance. Starting with the son-in-law that has been remapping the world while under active counterintelligence investigation for shaping policy in a way that may stave off familial bankruptcy.

[...]

FBI already told the White House that Porter and others would not get security clearance. And there are witnesses that Kelly knew about these multiple White House aides and thought they should be fired.

[...]

Remember: according to Supreme Court precedent, the President has final authority on matters of clearance. So if Trump wants to override the FBI’s determination, he can. Which he might get away with so long as it remained secret, so long as the press didn’t know that a bunch of people were working with the country’s most sensitive information even though the FBI had told the White House it was a very bad idea to let them. And know which ones they were.

But whether through the coincidental timing of a bunch of women refusing to let a serial abuser go on with his life or through orchestration by the Bureau or both, any effort to keep secret that the White House was delaying the obvious counterintelligence choice or even perhaps planning to defy the FBI about it is in the process of being exposed.

  Emptywheel

I suspect the FBI is going to make Trump sorry he ever took them on.

Trump is reportedly consulting now with two of the most likely counterintelligence problems, Jared and (on her own right, because of her own dodgy business deals) Ivanka, on a staff shake-up to try to make this problem go away.

White House chief of staff John Kelly was told several weeks ago that the FBI would recommend denying full security clearances to multiple White House aides who had been working in the West Wing on interim security clearances.

Those aides, according to a senior administration official, included former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who left the White House on Thursday after reports that he physically and verbally abused his two ex-wives.

The White House chief-of-staff told confidants in recent weeks that he had decided to fire anyone who had been denied a clearance — but had yet to act on that plan before the Porter allegations were first reported this week.

  Politico

Just hadn't gotten around to it. But he was going to.

Kelly initially defended Porter, who has been romantically involved with White House communications director Hope Hicks, before expressing shock over the allegations on Thursday.

Shocked. You want to know how shocked Kelly is about abusive men?

Kelly went on the record with the Daily Mail on Tuesday night defending Porter, praising him as a “man of true integrity and honor.”

That, too.

Kelly had been aware for several weeks that Porter would never receive a full security clearance due to a protective order that had been filed against him by an ex-wife in 2010. It’s unclear whether he was aware of what both of Porter’s ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, say they told FBI agents during the course of their interviews for his clearance about the abuse they suffered at his hands.

[...]

The initial Daily Mail report was worse than the White House had anticipated, containing photographs of the 2010 protective order filed against Porter but also a lengthy, on-the-record interview with one of his ex-wives as well as on-the-record confirmation from the other that he had abused her during their marriage.

But it wasn’t until Wednesday morning, when The Intercept first published a photograph of Porter’s first wife with a black eye, that Kelly and the White House communications team knew it would have to walk back its statement, the two White House officials said.

[...]

As staff secretary, Porter handled every piece of paper that went to and from the president. Last month, he paired up with policy adviser and longtime aide Stephen Miller to develop Trump’s State of the Union speech.

I'm sure he'll be missed.

Trump jokingly told economic adviser Gary Cohn several months ago that while he initially thought Porter was “just some guy who handed me papers,” he had since realized that Porter was “the smartest guy in the White House.”

Smart enough to get away with spousal abuse, a subject dear to what would be Trump's heart if he had one.

“The concept of interim clearances was created for somebody in a position of importance to be able to come on board and start working right away while the investigation ran its course,” said Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in security clearance law. “I’ve never heard of somebody just being allowed to sit on an interim clearance indefinitely. It runs contrary to the entire concept of the clearance process.”

This administration is a whole new ballgame.

However, Moss added, the president himself holds the ultimate authority over the clearance process, which he can alter by executive order – though it would be unprecedented. “If he wants individuals like Jared Kushner and Rob Porter to just sit with interim clearances for three years, he can do that,” Moss said.

We have a lot of rules and regulations and traditions that need to be looked at, changed or codified. We have Trump to thank for drawing our attention to these things.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Holy shit, can you take any more?

If not, don't read this post.  It concerns the flight on which Trump Sr. crafted a letter for Trump Jr. to lie about Russian adoptions in an attempt to cover for his infamous meeting to get dirt on Hillary.

The latest witness to be called for an interview about the episode was Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team before resigning in July. Mr. Corallo received an interview request last week from the special counsel and has agreed to the interview, according to three people with knowledge of the request.

[...]

The president supervised the writing of the statement, according to three people familiar with the episode, with input from other White House aides. A fierce debate erupted over how much information the news release should include. Mr. Trump was insistent about including language that the meeting was about Russian adoptions, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion. The president supervised the writing of the statement, according to three people familiar with the episode, with input from other White House aides. A fierce debate erupted over how much information the news release should include. Mr. Trump was insistent about including language that the meeting was about Russian adoptions, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion.

[...]

Nearly four hours later, the statement that had been cobbled together aboard Air Force One was sent to The Times. The statement was in Donald Trump Jr.’s name and was issued by Mr. Garten.

[...]

The Times published its story about the Trump Tower meeting, with the statement, at 5 p.m. Not long after, the news site Circa published a different version, saying that the June 2016 meeting had been set up “to discuss a Russian policy.” Mr. Corallo, the spokesman for the legal team, said in that story that the Russians had “misrepresented who they were and who they worked for.” He, along with the rest of the president’s legal team, was not consulted about Donald Trump Jr.’s statement before it was released.

[...]

Accusations began flying that the botched response made an already bad situation worse. Ms. Hicks called Mr. Corallo from Air Force One, according to three people who relayed his version of events to The Times. She accused him of trafficking in conspiracy theories and drawing more attention to the story.

The conference call with the president, Mr. Corallo and Ms. Hicks took place the next morning, and what transpired on the call is a matter of dispute.

In Mr. Corallo’s account — which he provided contemporaneously to three colleagues who later gave it to The Times — he told both Mr. Trump and Ms. Hicks that the statement drafted aboard Air Force One would backfire because documents would eventually surface showing that the meeting had been set up for the Trump campaign to get political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians.

[...]

Mr. Corallo told colleagues that he immediately notified the legal team of the conversation and jotted down notes to memorialize it. He also shared his concerns with Stephen K. Bannon, then the president’s chief strategist.

Mr. Corallo left the job shortly after the phone call.

[...]

Contacted on Wednesday, Mr. Corallo said he did not dispute any of the account shared by his colleagues but declined to elaborate further.

  NYT

One of the few smart ones, he packed his bags.

Has Hicks had her turn with the Mueller team yet? If not, it's coming up real soon.

In a statement on Wednesday, a lawyer for Ms. Hicks strongly denied Mr. Corallo’s allegations.

“As most reporters know, it’s not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media. But this warrants a response,” said the lawyer, Robert P. Trout. “She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”

Is that what she's going to tell Mueller?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.