memeorandum: Trump Place resident who runs Russia-focused PR shop wants to keep president's name on the building (Will Parker/The Real Deal New York)

12:00 AM ET, March 29, 2018

Top Items:

Trump's Lawyer Raised Prospect of Pardons for Flynn and Manafort as Special Counsel Closed In — WASHINGTON — A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year …

Miriam Rozen / National Law Journal:

John Dowd Calls Mueller ‘Terrific’ After Passing Trump Baton — Dowd said representing the president was hard work, and now he wants to “just take it easy, and get some rest.” — After 39 weeks and six days working for President Donald Trump, John Dowd figures he deserves a break.

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, Vox, Politico and Talking Points Memo

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:

Why Is Trump So Quiet? — It's quiet at the White House. Is it ... too quiet? — Trump-watching over the last few days, since about 1 p.m. on Friday, has been a strange experience. There are things happening, and even some big ones; the parade of occasional anonymously sourced West Wing stories continue.

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Signal, VICE News, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, National Review, IJR, Washington Times, Raw Story and Mediaite

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
Trump Aide Spoke During Campaign to Associate Tied to Russian Intelligence

Discussion: RedState

Alex Whiting / Just Security:
Why Dangling a Pardon Could Be an Obstruction of Justice—Even if the Pardon Power is Absolute

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, CNBC and Roll Call

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Who Ratted Out John Dowd? I Think We Know

Hot Air:
Report: Former Trump Lawyer Talked Pardons For Flynn And Manafort With Their Attorneys Last Year

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and Law & Crime

Mukhtar M. Ibrahim / mprnews.org:

Minneapolis FBI agent charged with leaking classified information to reporter — A Minneapolis FBI agent who started his career with the agency as an intern in 2000 has been charged with leaking classified information to the news website The Intercept. — Terry James Albury …

Discussion: Daily Wire, Washington Times and twitchy.com

Stephen Montemayor / Star Tribune:
Justice Dept. charges Minnesota FBI agent for leaking secret document to news outlet

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »

Osita Nwanevu / Slate:

It's Time to Stop Yammering About Liberal Bias — We're now several days into a roiling debate over whether liberals ought to be upset that the Atlantic hired a man who once argued that a quarter of American women should be executed. Predictably, both sides have progressed from that specific …

Discussion: The Federalist

Jessica Valenti:
On The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, and hiring men who want women dead

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, thecut, bradford-delong.com, Shakesville, American Prospect, Talking Points Memo and The Federalist

David French / National Review:
The Sliming of Kevin Williamson

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Federalist, twitchy.com and Boing Boing

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:

Inside the Cutthroat Battle to Be the Next Hope Hicks — Hope Hicks plans to depart Washington by Good Friday, over a month after she resigned as the White House communications director on February 28. She will leave behind a press operation that is inherently broken …

Discussion: The Week

Jacqueline Alemany / CBS News:

White House staffers view post-Hope Hicks era with trepidation — The reign of Hope Hicks, the unflappable White House communications director and the right side of President Trump's brain, comes to an end this week, leaving a communications team bitterly divided and an impetuous president increasingly isolated.

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Carolyn McAtee Cerbin / USA Today:

5 things to know about VA nominee Ronny Jackson — President Donald Trump's overall health “is excellent” and he did “exceedingly well” on cognitive screening. That's according to his White House physician, Navy doctor Ronny Jackson. (Jan. 16) AP — President Trump announced Wednesday …

Discussion: Bustle

Washington Post:

Trump ousts Veterans Affairs chief Shulkin, nominates personal physician to replace him … President Trump on Wednesday ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin after turmoil in the agency's senior ranks generated weeks of unflattering headlines, nominating his personal physician, Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson as his replacement.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Military Times, NPR, ThinkProgress, The Daily Signal, Vox, National Review, CNBC, Task & Purpose, Raw Story, Bustle, The Guardian, NBC News, USNI News, The Gateway Pundit and Splinter

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Veterans Affairs Secretary Is Latest to Go as Trump Shakes Up Cabinet

Discussion: twitchy.com, RedState, Mother Jones, Washington Free Beacon, Political Wire and Mediaite

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
David Shulkin is out as secretary of veterans affairs

Discussion: Military Times, New York Magazine, Axios, Common Dreams, twitchy.com, Boing Boing, Silence is Consent, The Gateway Pundit, CBS Los Angeles, The Week, Breitbart, TheBlaze, New York Times, Washington Post and Task & Purpose

Dominic Gates / The Seattle Times:

Boeing hit by WannaCry virus, but says no impact on jet production — Boeing was hit by the WannaCry computer virus Wednesday, initially raising fears within the company that airplane production could be affected. Later Boeing played down the impact and called it a “limited intrusion” with production unaffected.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Gizmodo, The Week and The Verge

Brooke Singman / Fox News:

Documents suggest possible coordination between CIA, FBI, Obama WH and Dem officials early in Trump-Russia probe: investigators — The political rhetoric over the FISA abuse memo took a new turn with the ranking Democrat drafting his own version; Catherine Herridge goes in-depth for ‘Special Report.’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Last Tradition

Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:

TV Ratings: ‘Roseanne’ Revival Skyrockets With Stunning Premiere — The ABC comedy returns nearly three decades after its original premiere, averaging a whopping 18.1 million and an unbelievable 5.1 rating in the key demo. — Roseanne returned Tuesday. The ABC sitcom, away from the air …

Discussion: EW.com, Breitbart, IJR, Vox, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller, The Week, The Federalist and New York Times

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline: ‘Roseanne’ Revival's Huge Debut Stuns Hollywood, Prompts Soul-Searching

Joseph Curl / Daily Wire:

Gun Rights Provocateur David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied — David Hogg, a self-appointed spokesman for a generation, revealed on Tuesday that four universities he has applied to have rejected his application. — The Florida high school student …

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Post, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, New Republic, VICE News, Mother Jones, TMZ.com, The Western Journal and The Daily Caller

Carly Wanna / Yale Daily News:

Jeb fires Trump barbs at Yale talk — Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's psychiatrist wants him to move past the 2016 presidential election. — “I'm not going to talk about the 2016 election,” Bush joked on Tuesday in a talk sponsored by the The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale.

Discussion: Splinter, The Week, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, thecut and Mediaite

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:

Under Ben Carson, HUD Scales Back Fair Housing Enforcement — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is attempting to scale back federal efforts to enforce fair housing laws, freezing enforcement actions against local governments and businesses, including Facebook, while sidelining officials …

Discussion: Law & Crime, ABC News, The Guardian, CityLab, NBC News, Curbed and The Verge

Dominic Holden / BuzzFeed:

A Top Lawyer At The Justice Department Is Quitting To Fight For LGBT Rights — Diana Flynn has been chief of the Civil Rights Division Appellate Section since the Reagan administration. She planned to stay until retirement, no matter who was in power, but instead she's about to join Lambda Legal …

Discussion: Raw Story

CNN:
Justice Dept. IG looking at allegations of FBI surveillance abuses

Discussion: CBS News and NewsBusters

Us Weekly:

Donald Trump Jr. and Aubrey O'Day ‘Were Trying’ to Have a Baby During Affair … Donald Trump Jr. and Aubrey O'Day's affair was much more than a one-night stand, so much so that they even considered the prospect of starting a family together, a source reveals exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Root, Splinter and Bustle

Brian M. Rosenthal / New York Times:

Why Does Subway Construction Cost So Much? Congress Wants to Find Out — The astronomical costs of building the Second Avenue subway and other New York public transit projects are now the subject of a federal inquiry. — The Government Accountability Office said on Wednesday …

Salvador Hernandez / BuzzFeed:

Trump Tweeted Pictures Claiming “The Start” Of His Border Wall, But It Was Actually An Old Project — President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he had been briefed about “the start of our Southern Border WALL” and included pictures depicting construction for the project, but there was one slight problem with the announcement.

Discussion: Raw Story

BBC:

Julian Assange has internet cut at Ecuadorian embassy in London — Ecuador has cut Julian Assange's internet connection at its embassy in London, preventing him from communicating with the outside world. — The move is to prevent the WikiLeaks founder from interfering in other countries' affairs, Ecuador said.

Discussion: NPR and Daily Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Jessica Miller / Salt Lake Tribune:

Judge ‘beyond angry’ after Corrections workers withheld evidence, allowing Utah killer to avoid death penalty — Manti • A Utah prisoner — who was weeks away from a trial where jurors would have decided whether he should be executed for killing his cellmate — was instead sentenced Wednesday …

Luke Barnes / ThinkProgress:

The ‘crying Nazi’ from Charlottesville now says he's an FBI informant — Ever since white supremacist Chris Cantwell took part in last August's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, his life has taken a turn for the worse. — First Cantwell posted a widely circulated video …

Discussion: New York Daily News, Raw Story and We Hunted The Mammoth

Elvia Limón / Dallas Morning News:

Mansfield teacher suspended for discussing her sexual orientation with students, officials say — Updated at 9:35 p.m. to include comments from MISD's school board meeting. — A Mansfield ISD elementary school art teacher was suspended after the district received complaints from parents …

Discussion: IJR, AOL, TheBlaze and Law & Crime

Andrew Harris / Bloomberg:

Trump Loses First Skirmish in Suit Over D.C. Hotel Profits — U.S. judge says joint Maryland-D.C. case goes forward for now — Justice Department argument seeking complete dismissal fails — President Donald Trump will have to contend for now with a lawsuit claiming he is improperly profiting …

Discussion: Raw Story

AJ Willingham / CNN:

Donations to the NRA tripled after the Parkland shooting — (CNN)In the days and weeks following the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the National Rifle Association saw a significant spike in donations. — In fact, reports from the Federal …

Discussion: RedState, Fox News, Axios and Washington Free Beacon

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:

Republicans consider ‘balanced-budget amendment’ after adding more than $1 trillion to the deficit — House Republicans are considering a vote on a “balanced-budget amendment,” a move that would proclaim their desire to eliminate the federal deficit even as they control a Congress that has added more than $1 trillion to it.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Washington Monthly, Politico, Common Dreams and ThinkProgress

Will Parker / The Real Deal New York:

Trump Place resident who runs Russia-focused PR shop wants to keep president's name on the building — Out of pad at 200 Riverside Boulevard, Bruce Messinger runs firm that touts DJT connections — In a 2017 survey of Trump Place residents at 200 Riverside Boulevard …

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

‘Heartbroken’ Trump Critic Ann Coulter: He's a ‘Shallow, Lazy Ignoramus’ … Right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter, whose 2016 campaign book In Trump We Trust touted the many virtues of the Republican nominee, is having second, third, and possibly even fourth thoughts about Donald J. Trump.

Discussion: Breitbart, Mediaite, Hit & Run, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, National Review and The Daily Caller

Emily Flitter / New York Times:

Morgan Stanley Knew of a Star's Alleged Abuse. He Still Works There. — A top Morgan Stanley broker was repeatedly accused of violence against ex-wives and girlfriends. Bank managers were told. But he kept his job. — Over 15 years, four women in Lake Oswego, Ore., a wealthy Portland suburb …

Alexander C. Kaufman / HuffPost:

Leaked Memo: EPA Issues Approved Talking Points Downplaying Climate Change — Point 5: Suggest that humans are only responsible “in some manner.” — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday evening sent employees a list of eight approved talking points on climate change from its Office …