memeorandum: House GOP ending Russia probe, says no collusion found (The Hill)

8:15 AM ET, March 13, 2018

Top Items:

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Despite Mueller's Push, House Republicans Declare No Evidence of Collusion — WASHINGTON — Even as the special counsel expands his inquiry and pursues criminal charges against at least four Trump associates, House Intelligence Committee Republicans said Monday they have found no evidence …

CNN:

House Republicans say no evidence of collusion as they end Russia probe — (CNN)Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced Monday they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they are shutting down their yearlong investigation.

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Wall Street Journal, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., The Root, VICE News, Politicus USA and Balloon Juice

Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:

The Walls Are Closing In on Trump … The Fox and Trump media enterprise today launched into a spasm of complete ecstasy as the House Intelligence Committee declared their investigation of Russian interference in our elections and their contacts with and collaboration with the Trump campaign over, done, solved.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Politico and The Daily Caller

Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:
Former DNI James Clapper Allegedly Leaked to CNN, investigation revealed

Discussion: The Stream, Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo:
Papadopoulos says that Trump personally encouraged him to arrange meeting with Putin, new book reports

Discussion: Raw Story

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: House Republicans Conclude Pretend Russia Investigation, Declare Trump Innocent

Mother Jones:
George Papadopoulos Claimed Trump Encouraged His Efforts to Establish a Russian Back Channel

Discussion: Raw Story and The Gateway Pundit

The Hill:
House GOP ending Russia probe, says no collusion found

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, Townhall.com and Mother Jones

Wall Street Journal: Republicans on House Panel Find No Collusion Between Russia and Trump Campaign

Fox News:
House Intel finds ‘no evidence of collusion’ between Trump campaign and Russia

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Gateway Pundit and ThinkProgress

Karoun Demirjian / Washington Post:
Republicans find no evidence of collusion or Russian preference for Trump

Discussion: The Hill, Bangor Daily News, Common Dreams, Mediaite and Political Wire

Dan Simon / CNN:

ICE spokesman in SF resigns and slams Trump administration officials — Trump, California battle over immigration — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — San Francisco (CNN)James Schwab, a spokesman for the San Francisco Division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has resigned …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Raw Story

Hamed Aleaziz / San Francisco Chronicle:

ICE spokesman quits over officials' claim of 800 eluding arrest — The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resigned after the agency's recent Northern California sweep, saying he couldn't continue to do his job after Trump administration officials …

Meagan Flynn / Washington Post:

ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions, about Calif. immigrant arrests … The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as “false” and “misleading” statements made by top-ranking officials …

Kyle Olson / The American Mirror:

VIDEO: Hillary slips down stairs in India — despite two men holding her up — Even though Hillary Clinton had help going down a set of stairs in India today, she still nearly fell down. — While visiting Jahaz Mahal in Dhar's Mandu, Clinton was attempting to descend about 15 stairs.

Discussion: NTK Network, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com and Grabien News

YouTube:

Bitter Hillary Clinton Trashes America's Heartland, Calls States That Didnt Vote For Her “Backwards” … Dismissing America's Heartland to a foreign audience, Hillary Clinton says states that didn't vote for her are “backwards.” Clinton brags she won the coasts & places that are “moving forward.”

Discussion: The Federalist, WPIX 11 New York and Mediaite

Weekly Standard: Hillary Reminds America Why She Lost

Derek Hunter / The Daily Caller: Watch: Hillary Nearly Falls Down Stairs Twice In India

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Dem Gains in CD18 Special — Voters divided on steel tariffs, but negligible impact on vote — West Long Branch, NJ - Democrat Conor Lamb has taken a lead over Republican Rick Saccone in the special election for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Politico, CNBC, ABC News, Rewire.News, New York Times, The Daily Beast, News & Guts Media, Outside the Beltway, Politicus USA, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media, Vox, Washington Times, Raw Story, Axios and Joe.My.God.

Alex Roarty / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Inside the DCCC's stealth effort to help Conor Lamb — Publicly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did little to help Conor Lamb. — Behind the scenes was a different story. — The Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania's special House election — whom polls suggest is poised …

Discussion: New York Times, Politico and Real Clear Politics

Kevin Robillard / Politico: Republicans abandon tax cut message in Pa. special election

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Pennsylvania GOP chairman says Tuesday special election is in ‘Democrat district’

Discussion: Washington Post, RRH Elections, Roll Call, Fox News, Victory Girls Blog, NBC News, NPR, CNN, Booman Tribune, Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, The Daily Beast, TYT Network, Political Wire, New York Magazine and FiveThirtyEight

Kate Briquelet / The Daily Beast:

EXCLUSIVE: Stormy Daniels' Pal on Trump: ‘He Would Call All the Time’ … Stormy Daniels turned on the speakerphone when President Trump called. — So says Keith Munyan, one of the four people Stormy Daniels included in the nondisclosure agreement she signed with Donald Trump's lawyer.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Dallas Morning News:

Texas notary's failure to sign Stormy Daniels' hush agreement is under investigation — Updated at 4:38 p.m. to include comment from Daniels' attorney Michael J. Avenatti. — Texas officials are investigating whether a Dallas-area notary properly signed off on Stormy Daniels' agreement …

Discussion: Fortune, The Hill, HeraldScotland, Talking Points Memo, Daily Wire, fox8.com, New York Times, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and The Guardian

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Is The Stormy Story More Damaging Than We Thought?

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Hullabaloo

Tom Hamburger / Washington Post:

Roger Stone claimed contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, according to two associates … In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios and Raw Story

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:

Tillerson casts poisoning as sign of more aggressive Russia — ABOARD A U.S. GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cast the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain as part of a “certain unleashing of activity” by Russia that the United States is struggling to understand.

Rex W. Tillerson / US Department of State:
Attributing Responsibility for the Nerve Agent Attack in the U.K.

Discussion: The Guardian, HeraldScotland and Mediaite

BBC:
Russian spy: Highly likely Moscow behind attack, says Theresa May

Discussion: The Intercept, Vox, Daily Wire, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, RedState, Joe.My.God., Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Little Green Footballs

Will Englund / Washington Post: What a brave Russian scientist told me about Novichok, the nerve agent identified in the spy attack

USA Today:

Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, says Robert Mueller is ‘not an unguided missile’ — Special Counsel Robert Muller may delay the obstruction of justice portion of the 2016 election probe, potentially shifting focus to other parts of the case like collusion for the time being.

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice, Shareblue Media, Mediaite and News & Guts Media

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:

Cramer: Larry Kudlow is the leading contender to replace Gary Cohn as Trump's top economic advisor — Larry Kudlow is the leading contender to replace Gary Cohn as National Economic Council director, CNBC's Jim Cramer reports. — Larry Kudlow is the leading contender …

Discussion: TVNewser

Susan Goldberg / National Geographic Magazine:

For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It — We asked a preeminent historian to investigate our coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here's what he found. — It is November 2, 1930, and National Geographic has sent a reporter …

Discussion: Splinter, NPR, Axios, The Root, theGrio, Boing Boing and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Jesse J. Holland / Yahoo:
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage

Discussion: Power Line

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Will Betsy DeVos Expand the School-to-Prison Pipeline? — On Sunday evening, CBS's “60 Minutes” broadcast an interview that Lesley Stahl conducted with Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's education secretary and one of the richest members of his very rich cabinet. It was overwhelmingly seen …

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

CNN:
White House officials alarmed at education secretary's ‘60 Minutes’ performance

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post, The Talking Dog, RedState, ThinkProgress, NWLC, Mediaite, NewsHounds blog, Media Matters for America, Political Wire, The Progressive Pulse, Washington Free Beacon and Joe.My.God.

BuzzFeed:

How A Player In The Trump-Russia Scandal Led A Double Life As An American Spy — Felix Sater has been cast as a Russian mafioso, a career criminal, and a key business associate of President Donald Trump — but he spent more than two decades as an intelligence asset who helped the US government track terrorists and mobsters.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Politico and Talking Points Memo