memeorandum: Comey declines to testify before Senate committee (Austin Wright/Politico)

9:10 PM ET, May 12, 2017

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Trump's Comey fight spooks Capitol Hill — There is widespread concern among Congressional leadership about Trump's frame of mind in the wake of the Comey firing. — Senior Senate aide: “It has to stop ... never seen anything like this in my entire career.”

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, ABC News, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog and Washington Monthly

Pamela Brown / CNN:

Source: Comey is ‘not worried about any tapes’ — Washington (CNN)Former FBI Director James Comey is “not worried about any tapes” of conversations between him and President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Friday, adding that “if there is a tape, there's nothing he is worried about” that could be on it.

Discussion: Raw Story, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, The American Conservative, Daily Mail, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Media Matters for America, CANNONFIRE, RedState, ThinkProgress, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Politicus USA, Political Wire and Axios

The Daily Beast:

White House Staff React in Real-Time as Trump Tweets: ‘Jesus’ … It was 7:51 a.m. eastern time on a Friday, and the president was angrily tweetstorming again. — This time, it was about “Fake News,” “the Russians,” China and beef, James Comey and “tapes,” and his sometimes hapless White House staff.

Pierre Thomas / ABC News:

Comey furious at lack of respect White House showed, sources say — Former FBI Director James Comey was furious at the lack of respect the White House showed him in the way he was fired, sources have told ABC News. — Associates say he is simmering at some of the comments directed …

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, portal.liberalamerica.org and Politicus USA

Charles J. Sykes / New York Times:

If Liberals Hate Him, Then Trump Must Be Doing Something Right — If there was one principle that used to unite conservatives, it was respect for the rule of law. Not long ago, conservatives would have been horrified at wholesale violations of the norms and traditions of our political system …

Discussion: Politicaldog101.Com

Austin Wright / Politico:

Comey declines to testify before Senate committee — Ousted FBI Director James Comey will not appear in a closed session before the Senate Intelligence Committee next Tuesday. — Comey had been invited by Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and top Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia.

Discussion: Power Line, CNN, Fox News, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and IJR

AP News:

The Latest: Senate intel chair sees no evidence of collusion — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and the FBI (all times local): — The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says he doesn't think the FBI investigation into alleged links between President …

Discussion: Mediaite, RedState, The Hill, Axios, ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, IJR, Above the Law, Hot Air, Shareblue, Gizmodo and Politico

Justin Miller / The Daily Beast:

Did Donald Trump's Dinner With FBI Boss James Comey Break the Law? … The timing of President Donald Trump's dinner with FBI Director James Comey raises the question of whether the president attempted to—or did in fact—interfere with an ongoing FBI investigation. And that's a federal offense.

Discussion: MSNBC, USA Today, Breitbart, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Mahablog, Political Insider blog, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Common Dreams, more at Mediagazer »

Fox News Insider:

Judge Jeanine Pirro Interview With President Trump — Plus Bobby Knight joins “Watters' World.” — Don't miss Judge Jeanine Pirro's interview with President Donald Trump, Saturday at 9:00pm ET on Justice. — The president will go inside his controversial decision to fire FBI Director James Comey …

Shannon Vavra / Axios:

Comey turns down Senate invite, won't testify next week — Senate Intel committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-VA) told MSNBC Friday that former FBI Director James Comey will not be appearing before the committee next Tuesday, despite an invitation to speak with the committee behind closed doors.

Discussion: ABC News, Hot Air and Political Wire

Megan Cerullo / New York Daily News:
Roger Stone contradicts Trump, says he has spoken to the President ‘very recently’

Discussion: Mother Jones

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Trump's Comey firing sets off new round of leaks

Discussion: Politico, Axios, ABC News, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Hot Air, Raw Story, Political Wire and RedState

Bwittes / Lawfare:
Et Tu Rod? Why The Deputy Attorney General Must Resign

Discussion: Washington Post, emptywheel, Mediaite, Politico, The Hill, Take Care Blog, RedState, Vox, New York Times, ThinkProgress, Red Alert Politics, Outside the Beltway, Salon and Hullabaloo

Brandon Carter / The Hill:
Trump suggests WH ‘not have press conferences’ unless he does them himself

Discussion: Associated Press, Axios, Politico, ABC News, TVNewser and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Brad Reed / Raw Story:
‘No one can talk sense into him’: CNN guest says even Ivanka seems to have lost control of President Trump

Discussion: AOL

Ramesh Ponnuru / National Review:
Trump vs. the Russia Investigations

Discussion: Bloomberg, Hot Air and Patterico's Pontifications

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Comey replacements: White House confirms shortlist to head FBI

Discussion: CBS Denver, Politico, KXAN-TV and The Daily Caller

Alan Dershowitz / Washington Examiner:
Trump did not obstruct justice in firing James Comey

Discussion: Politico and Conservative News Today

Chris Stirewalt / Fox News:
Defenders or enablers?

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Axios, Washington Post, ABC News, Mediaite, Power Line, Washington Free Beacon, Politico, Associated Press, RedState and Hot Air

Kelly Cohen / Washington Examiner:
James Comey rejects invitation to testify before Senate Intelligence Committee

Discussion: Shareblue, NBC News, CNN, Real Clear Politics, Washington Post, The Atlantic, HuffPost and The Daily Caller

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Top Dems call for report on Sessions's role in Comey firing

Discussion: Washington Post, The Talking Dog, Liberal Values and Politico

GreAt / Securelist:

WannaCry ransomware used in widespread attacks all over the world — Earlier today, our products detected and successfully blocked a large number of ransomware attacks around the world. In these attacks, data is encrypted with the extension “.WCRY” added to the filenames.

Discussion: Ars Technica, New York Magazine, WeLiveSecurity, Lawfare, Snopes.com, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Consumerist, Engadget, NPR and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Selena Larson / CNNMoney:
Massive ransomware attack hits 74 countries

Discussion: WATE-TV and RedState

New York Times:
Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tool

Discussion: BBC, The Guardian, Politico, Hot Air, Associated Press, ThinkProgress, Reuters, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Engadget, France 24, Al Jazeera English, New York Magazine, Common Dreams, The Verge and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Chris Baraniuk / BBC:
Ransomware infections reported worldwide

Discussion: The Intercept, Gizmodo and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

James Fallows / The Atlantic:

Five Reasons the Comey Affair Is Worse Than Watergate — The tangled affair now known as Watergate began 45 years ago, before most of today's U.S. population had even been born. (The median age of Americans is about 38, so most people in the country were born in 1979 or thereafter.)

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Julian Sanchez / Just Security: A Misplaced Focus on “Collusion”

Paul Sperry / New York Post:
The real reason Trump canned Jim Comey

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and The Rush Limbaugh Show

John Cassidy / New Yorker:
Donald Trump's Craven Republican Enablers

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hullabaloo and Washington Post

Joe DePaolo / Mediaite:

‘It Took My Breath Away’: Chris Wallace Offers Stunning, Must-Watch Critique of Trump White House — Chris Wallace has spent the better part of the past four decades reporting on Washington for NBC, ABC, and now Fox News. And given his lengthy tenure of Beltway reporting …

Discussion: The Week

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Weighs Shake-Up of Press Team

Discussion: Political Wire

Graeme McMillan / Hollywood Reporter:
Hail-Hydra.com Redirects to Official White House Website

Discussion: Washington Times, The Week and IJR

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Why it's likely that Trump does have recordings of his Oval Office conversations — President Trump issued a not-terribly-veiled threat to former FBI director James B. Comey in a tweet Friday morning. … For a guy who has spent the past week being compared to Richard Nixon for firing a man …

Discussion: CNN, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, New York Times, New York Daily News, CBS Detroit, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, ABC News and twitchy.com

New York Times:
Trump Warning to Comey Prompts Questions on ‘Tapes’

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:
Trump has a long history of secretly recording calls, according to former associates

Discussion: Politico, Salon, ThinkProgress, RedState, Vox and IJR

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy — Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed his federal prosecutors Thursday to charge defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York's PIX11, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Mother Jones, ACLU, Balloon Juice, Fox News, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hit & Run, Gothamist, New York Magazine, The FADER, The Daily Caller, Snopes.com, NBC News and The Week

Matt Ford / The Atlantic: Jeff Sessions Reinvigorates the Drug War

The Hill:
Obama AG rips Sessions as being ‘dumb on crime’

Discussion: ABC News and RedState

Hadas Gold / Politico:

New York Times publisher sends personal appeal to those who canceled over Bret Stephens — New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. is making a personal appeal to subscribers who canceled because the paper hired Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist who has questioned …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Wall Street Journal:

Financial-Crimes Monitor to Share Records in Trump-Russia Probe — Senate committee requested the data from Treasury's FinCEN — WASHINGTON—A Treasury Department unit that specializes in combating money-laundering will share financial records with an expanding Senate probe …

Discussion: Reuters

Washington Post:

‘You are paddleboarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks,’ chopper tells Calif. beachgoers — “You are paddleboarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks,” Deputy Brian Stockbridge announced via a loudspeaker. — Stockbridge was in a helicopter, flying off the coast …

Discussion: Boing Boing

Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times:

Former Sheriff Lee Baca defiant to the end, even after prison sentence — Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has been sentenced to three years in prison, marking an end to a corruption scandal that has roiled the Sheriff's Department for several years.

Discussion: RedState