memeorandum: The Special Counsel Mistake (Wall Street Journal)

9:25 AM ET, May 18, 2017

Top Items:

The Special Counsel Mistake — Rosenstein bends to political pressure, and here we go again.

Discussion: Infowars and The Last Tradition

Pamela Brown / CNN:

Comey prepped responses ahead of Trump discussions — (CNN)Ahead of discussions with President Donald Trump, Former FBI Director James Comey prepped with his team on ways to respond to anticipated questions so that he would not come across as confrontational during the ongoing Russia probe, according to an official close to Comey.

Discussion: Althouse

CNN:

Inside an embattled Trump's most consequential evening of turmoil yet — Washington (CNN)No one inside the West Wing had to ask how the President's mood was on Wednesday afternoon as aides awaited his return from delivering the commencement address to the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

Discussion: The Hill, Balloon Juice, The Week, Above the Law, TheBlaze and Lawyers, Guns & Money

New York Times:

How Trump learned of the special counsel — The president learned of Mr. Rosenstein's decision around 5:35 p.m. on Wednesday when the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, walked into the Oval Office to tell him. — Mr. Trump, who was looking through papers, reacted calmly but defiantly at first …

Discussion: Politico

Philip Shenon / Politico:

Trump's Worst Nightmare Comes True — The most daunting assignment in Robert Mueller's career in law-enforcement and public service might seem to have arrived on Wednesday night, with his appointment as the special prosecutor in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 president campaign …

Discussion: ABC News, New York Times, The Week, Washington Free Beacon, Axios and Outside the Beltway

Jchong / Lawfare:

Initial Reactions on the Appointment of Robert Mueller As Special Counsel — FBI Director Robert Mueller leads a briefing for President Obama on the Boston Marathon bombings, April 2013 / Official White House Photo by Pete Souza — There's a lot of reason to be cheered this evening …

Discussion: New York Times, CNN and Vox

NBC News:
Flynn, Manafort Are Key Figures In Russia Probe Mueller Will Lead

Discussion: Geller Report, Bloomberg, CNBC, Mediaite, New York Times, NBC News, The Week, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:
The worst job in Washington right now: Working for Trump

Cecilia Vega / ABC News:
Trump reaction to special counsel measured, says White House

Discussion: Associated Press and Politico

Washington Post:
Deputy attorney general appoints special counsel to oversee probe of Russian interference in election

Discussion: Betsy's Page, New York Magazine, The Hill, The Week, Refinery29, Shareblue, Taylor Marsh, New York Times, Power Line, twitchy.com, Hot Air, Liberal Values, Daily Kos, Political Wire, KFOR-TV and TheBlaze

Rebecca R. Ruiz / New York Times:
Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation

Discussion: Politico, alicublog, The Federalist, The Week, Take Care Blog, FiveThirtyEight, Daily Kos, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, The Atlantic, Booman Tribune, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Hit & Run and Althouse

Nicole Gaudiano / USA Today:
GOP blocks House vote on independent Russia-Trump investigation

Discussion: twitchy.com

Tara Palmeri / Politico:
Trump turns to ex-campaign aides as scandals pile up

Discussion: Mediaite and Associated Press

Matea Gold / Washington Post:
New special counsel Robert Mueller has history of standing up to the White House

Discussion: Lawfare and AOL

Mike Levine / ABC News:
Robert Mueller appointed special counsel to oversee probe into Russia's interference in 2016 election

Discussion: Politico, Scared Monkeys, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, RedState and Little Green Footballs

Katie Bo Williams / The Hill:
Justice names special counsel for Russia investigation

Discussion: ABC News, Axios and RedState

New York Times:

Trump Team Knew Flynn Was Under Investigation Before He Came to White House — WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn told President Trump's transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Politico, Politicus USA, Media Matters for America, The Week, Raw Story, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, CNBC, TheBlaze, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Axios, Mother Jones and Washington Times

Vera Bergengruen / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Flynn stopped military plan Turkey opposed - after being paid as its agent — WASHINGTON — One of the Trump administration's first decisions about the fight against the Islamic State was made by Michael Flynn weeks before he was fired - and it conformed to the wishes of Turkey …

Discussion: Hot Air, IJR, Just Security, Raw Story, Axios, The Week, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, Politico and ABC News

Reuters:

Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sources — Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump's campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race …

Discussion: Axios, The Atlantic, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, The Week, AOL, Gizmodo and twitchy.com

Adam Entous / Washington Post:

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump — KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation …

Ashley Dejean / Mother Jones:
Report: Top GOP Lawmaker Was Recorded Saying He Thought Trump Was on Putin's Payroll

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller and bradford-delong.com

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

Neil Gorsuch will be the enduring symbol of a disastrous presidency. — Several hours after the New York Times reported on Tuesday that President Donald Trump had attempted to quash the FBI's investigation into Michael Flynn, conservative pundit Erick Erickson tweeted that …

Discussion: Salon, CNN, Newsmax, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, Refinery29 and Washington Post

Theodoric Meyer / Politico:

Conservatives begin to whisper: President Pence — Not since the release of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Donald Trump bragged about groping women by the genitals, have some conservatives thought so seriously, if a bit wistfully, about two words: President Pence.

Discussion: Breitbart, The Resurgent, The Last Tradition, Bloomberg, Outside the Beltway and Business Insider

Bill Allison / Bloomberg:
Pence Takes Steps to Build War Chest as White House Stumbles

Discussion: The Last Tradition

Erin McClam / CNNMoney:

Roger Ailes, who built Fox News into a powerhouse, dies at 77 — Roger Ailes dead at 77 — Roger Ailes, who transformed cable news and then American politics by building Fox News into a ratings powerhouse, died Thursday. He was 77. — The death was announced by his family and reported on Fox News Channel.

Discussion: WPRI-TV

Washington Post:
Roger Ailes, Fox News founder and former chairman, dies at 77, family says

Discussion: Gothamist, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Pfeiffer / The Daily Caller:

Pat Buchanan: It Isn't Watergate Yet, But How Long Can This Sustain? — Pat Buchanan says the nonstop uproar following Trump's firing of former FBI director James Comey is not comparable to Watergate, but he does wonder if the Trump presidency can function with this level of drama.

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Marc Fisher / Washington Post: How dangerous are the cracks emerging in Trump's wall of support?

Shane Harris / Wall Street Journal:

Israeli Source Seen as Key to Countering Islamic State Threat — The classified information that President Donald Trump shared with Russian officials last week came from an Israeli source described by multiple U.S. officials as the most valuable source of information on external plotting by Islamic State.

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Trump isn't a toddler — he's a product of America's culture of impunity for the rich — “When you're a star, they let you do it.” — Ross Douthat's column arguing for the superiority of “25th Amendment remedies” to impeachment for Donald Trump's various misdeeds is impressive in its ability …

Washington Post:

Race between Democrats running for Virginia governor is neck-and-neck — RICHMOND — Virginia Democrats Tom Perriello and Ralph Northam are battling in a very close contest for the party's gubernatorial primary, with divisions reemerging from last year's Democratic presidential race …

Discussion: Political Wire

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

‘The Flight 93 Election’ Crashes Again — In case you've had the pleasure of forgetting, “The Flight 93 Election” was the title of a portentous essay, published last September under a Roman pseudonym in The Claremont Review of Books, that declared the stakes for the United States in 2016 thus: “Charge the cockpit or you die.”

Discussion: BarbWire.com

Ben Beaumont-Thomas / The Guardian:

Chris Cornell, Soundgarden frontman, dies aged 52 — Representative for singer, who helped take the grunge sound of the 1990s into the mainstream, said his death was sudden and unexpected — Chris Cornell, lead singer of American hard rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52.

Discussion: New York Times, myfox8.com, CBS Philly, Raw Story, Refinery29 and Althouse

Brandon Carter / The Hill:

Kellyanne Conway cancels Fox appearance after special prosecutor announcement — Kellyanne Conway cancelled an appearance on Fox News' “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday night after it was announced that a special prosecutor would be appointed to head up the investigation into President Trump's ties to Russia.

Discussion: RedState, The Week and TheBlaze

Adriana Cohen / Boston Herald:

The media has lost its marbles — Just five months in, 2017 is going down in history as the year that gave us the worst media bias America has ever witnessed. — It's worse than slanted, it's flat-out rigged against our president and he knows it. Yesterday at the Coast Guard Academy …

Michelle Kosinski:

This is How Your Government Responds to Unfavorable News Coverage — Monday night, as the story of the President giving classified information to the Russians was in full evolution, I get a call from this guy: — RC Hammond, the State Department's communications advisor, who had his facts wrong about what was reported and by whom.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo