memeorandum: New EPA Chief Is Already Facing 2 Ethical Problems In His First Week, Echoing Scott Pruitt (Alexander C. Kaufman/HuffPost)

11:30 AM ET, July 14, 2018

Top Items:

Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:

‘Warning Lights Are Blinking Red,’ Top Intelligence Officer Says of Russian Attacks — WASHINGTON — The nation's top intelligence officer said on Friday that the persistent danger of Russian cyberattacks today was akin to the warnings the United States had of stepped-up terror threats ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, CNN, Vox, Mediaite, 1A, U.S. Department of Justice, Defense One, New Republic and The American Conservative, more at Techmeme »

Politico:

House conservatives prep push to impeach Rosenstein — House conservatives are preparing a new push to oust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to three conservative Capitol Hill sources — putting the finishing touches on an impeachment filing even as Rosenstein announced …

Lawfare:

Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller's Hacking Indictment — The indictment Friday morning of 12 Russian military intelligence officials in connection with the 2016 election hacks and the resulting distribution of purloined emails was not a total surprise.

Discussion: NBC News, Sputnik International, The Hill and Mediaite

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:

Ignore the spin — still no evidence of Trump collusion — “They caught the witches.” Those were the celebratory words of John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton — 's 2016 presidential campaign, in response to the indictment Friday of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking efforts linked to the 2016 election.

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Thanks to Robert Mueller, Trump and Putin Now Have a Summit Agenda — Donald Trump has always been brazen about his affection for Vladimir Putin, a condition which Merriam-Webster defines as “acting or done in a very open and shocking way without shame or embarrassment.”

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Trump blames Obama for Russian election meddling — The president asked why the Obama administration didn't ‘do something about’ Russia's cyberattacks. — President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for the actions of 12 Russian military officials indicted …

Discussion: Axios, One America News Network, Mediaite and The First Street Journal

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

After being told of Russia indictments, Trump still aspired to be friends with Putin — HELSINKI — Before he embarked on a week of transatlantic diplomacy, President Trump sat down with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who previewed for the boss an explosive development …

Discussion: Breitbart and ABC News

CNN:
Roger Stone's messages suggest he is unnamed person in new Russia indictment

Discussion: Politico, POLITICUSUSA, emptywheel, The Daily Beast, Fox News, GoLocalProv.com, Raw Story, Boing Boing, Mediaite and HuffPost

Just Security:
Six Big Takeaways from Mueller's Indictment of Russian Intel Officers

Discussion: Conservative News Today, Gizmodo, New York Times, LifeZette, Arizona Republic, themarketswork and The Last Refuge

Raphael Satter / Associated Press:
Long-hidden hackers unmasked by US special counsel

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones and Showbiz411

David French / National Review:
Mueller's Latest Indictments Show That ‘Witches’ Are Very Real

Discussion: The Intercept, ThinkProgress, The Other McCain, LifeZette, The Daily Caller, Front Page Magazine, Vox, The Guardian, FiveThirtyEight, The Atlantic and The New Civil Rights Movement

David Von Drehle / Washington Post:
Mueller stood up to Putin. Now it's Trump's turn.

Discussion: Political Wire

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Conservatives moving to impeach Rosenstein soon: report

Discussion: The Right Scoop, POLITICUSUSA, Axios and Breitbart

Washington Post:
How the Russians hacked the DNC and passed its emails to WikiLeaks

Discussion: Weekly Standard, FiveThirtyEight and Outside the Beltway

Politico:
Trump's allies and lawyers see hope that Mueller's work is wrapping up

Discussion: Political Wire, ABC News, twitchy.com and Breitbart

Ali Dukakis / ABC News:
Roger Stone says he's the ‘US person’ mentioned in Mueller indictment

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They Listening?

Discussion: Bloomberg, electionlawblog.org, Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, Vox, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Post, Gizmodo, New Republic and The Week

emptywheel:
The Russian Hack — As I laid out last week, I provided information …

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Baltimore Sun, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, HuffPost, Vox, Motherboard, Talking Points Memo and Al Jazeera English

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
‘Evil Has Won’ — Pro-American Germans feel betrayed.

Discussion: Althouse and Raw Story

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times: G.R.U., Russian Spy Agency Cited by Mueller, Casts a Long Shadow

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

Where Did Donald Trump Get Two Hundred Million Dollars to Buy His Money-Losing Scottish Golf Club? — Between meeting the Queen of England and Vladimir Putin, President Trump will spend this weekend at Turnberry, the golf course he bought in 2014 and rechristened Trump Turnberry.

Discussion: Bloomberg and Mother Jones

Paul Kelbie / Associated Press:
10,000 protest Trump in Edinburgh; UK police seek paraglider

Discussion: Politico

Katie Rogers / New York Times:
In Trump's U.K. Visit, Some See ‘Infomercial’ for Money-Losing Golf Resort

Discussion: CNN, American Greatness, The Guardian and Raw Story

Jennifer Hassan / Washington Post:

‘Did Donald Trump just WALK IN FRONT OF THE QUEEN?’ — LONDON — It's generally quite difficult to upstage the queen of England, but President Trump might have managed to do so. — Trump and Queen Elizabeth II met Friday as part of his working visit to the United Kingdom.

Discussion: twitchy.com and Telegraph

Katie Rogers / New York Times:
From Truman to Trump, Queen Elizabeth Has Met 12 U.S. Presidents

Discussion: Althouse and Bustle

CBS News:

Maryland told its voter registration vendor financed by Russian oligarch — Top Maryland officials say the FBI told them this week that the state's voter registration platform was purchased by a Russian oligarch in 2015, without state officials knowing. The FBI did not indicate a breach occurred …

Discussion: The Intercept

Jayne Miller / WBAL: Maryland voter registration system runs on software owned by Russian-financed firm, I-Team learns

Ovetta Wiggins / Washington Post:
Election system firm with Maryland contract has ties to Russian oligarch, FBI tells state

Discussion: Axios

Foreign Policy:

White House Official Who Advocated for Refugees Sacked and Escorted From Office — Jennifer Arangio had clashed with Stephen Miller and other hard-line aides to Trump. — A senior White House official, Jennifer Arangio, was fired Thursday and escorted from her office …

Nahal Toosi / Politico:
Another top NSC official ousted under Bolton

Discussion: Political Wire, CNN, KTLA, Joe.My.God. and Axios

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Should Democrats Have Saved Their Filibuster for the New Court Fight? — WASHINGTON — In the days leading up to the vote on Judge Neil M. Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court in the spring of 2017, Senator Susan Collins approached Senator Michael Bennet on the Senate floor with an urgent plea.

Daniel Dale / Toronto Star:

Trump has said 1,340,330 words as president. They're getting more dishonest, a Star study shows — WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump's words are getting more dishonest over time, the Star has found in the first detailed statistical analysis of his inaccurate statements in office.

Discussion: Political Wire

Garrett M. Graff / New York Times:

The Real F.B.I. Election Culprit — Hint: It's not Peter Strzok. — Mr. Graff is a journalist and historian. — In his testimony before two House committees on Thursday, the F.B.I. agent Peter Strzok testified that he could have altered the 2016 election — but didn't.

Connor Wolf / LifeZette:
Is Lisa Page Spilling the Beans on Former FBI Lover Peter Strzok?

Discussion: American Greatness, Vox and RT

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

America First, America Hated, America Alone — Trump intends to bring about the collapse of the liberal international order, in its commitment to open societies and its institutions. — Some near-forgotten anniversaries are worth commemorating. One hundred years ago — Bastille Day …

Discussion: Reuters

Avery Anapol / The Hill:

Trump falsely claims CNN did not cover him refusing question from Acosta at UK press conference — on Saturday falsely claimed that CNN did not report on his snub of the network's White House correspondent Jim Acosta at an international news conference the previous day.

Discussion: Townhall, The Daily Caller, Political Wire, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

Alexander C. Kaufman / HuffPost:

New EPA Chief Is Already Facing 2 Ethical Problems In His First Week, Echoing Scott Pruitt — Andrew Wheeler's first day as acting administrator was Monday. — Andrew Wheeler only took over the Environmental Protection Agency four days ago, but the new acting administrator …

Washington Post:

The Trump administration has a new argument for dismantling the social safety net: It worked. — Republicans for years have proclaimed the federal government's decades-old War on Poverty a failure. — “Americans are no better off today than they were before the War on Poverty began in 1964 …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Axios