memeorandum: Prosecutors' opening statement: ‘Paul Manafort lied’ (CNN)

5:35 PM ET, July 31, 2018

Top Items:

Facebook Has Identified Ongoing Political Influence Campaign — WASHINGTON — Facebook is preparing to announce that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead …

Discussion: New Republic, JustOneMinute, Shakesville, ThinkProgress, The Guardian, VICE News, Mother Jones, Daily Wire, Axios, Raw Story, Boing Boing, Political Wire and rbc.ru, more at Mediagazer »

Facebook:

Removing Bad Actors on Facebook — Today we removed 32 Pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior. This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook because we don't want people or organizations creating networks of accounts …

Associated Press:
Facebook finds ‘sophisticated’ efforts to disrupt elections

Discussion: abc7news.com and WCCO | CBS Minnesota

CNNMoney: Facebook takes down suspected Russian network of pages

Ashley Gold / Politico:
Facebook suspends ‘inauthentic’ accounts, sees Russia link

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Washington Post and 105.9 FM and AM 630

Washington Post: Facebook says it has uncovered a coordinated disinformation operation ahead of the 2018 midterm elections

Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:

At Paul Manafort Trial, Defense Puts The Blame On Mueller Witness Rick Gates — The first trial of Trump's former campaign chairman is now underway in Virginia. — ALEXANDRIA, Va. An attorney for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told jurors during opening arguments in his tax …

Washington Post:

Paul Manafort trial: A jury has been selected — Paul Manafort, President Trump's onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party …

Discussion: Observer

Zachary Basu / Axios:
Why it matters: What's at stake in the Manafort trial

Discussion: Spectator USA, ABC News, Politico, NPR and Vox

CNN:
Prosecutors' opening statement: ‘Paul Manafort lied’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Root, KTLA, Lawfare, Politico and CNBC

CNN:
Prosecutors tell jury that Manafort owns a $15,000 ostrich jacket

Discussion: New Republic

Associated Press: Prosecutors: Paul Manafort believed he was above the law

Matthew Mosk / ABC News:
Prosecutors advise witnesses in Manafort trial: Avoid the T-word (Trump)

Discussion: Reuters, Daily Wire, Raw Story, One America News Network and The Daily Beast

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:

John Kelly Tells White House Staff Trump Asked Him To Stay in Post Through 2020 — The White House chief of staff said he agreed to the president's request — WASHINGTON—White House chief of staff John Kelly told staff on Monday that President Trump had asked him to remain in his post through …

Discussion: The Hill, Breitbart, HuffPost, New York Times, CNN, Outside the Beltway, LifeZette, Townhall, Axios, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Political Wire, Mediaite and Splinter

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“Don McGahn Hates Rudy with Intensity of 1,000 Burning Suns”: Is Trump Ready to Cook Giuliani? — Inside the West Wing, Giuliani's recent wacko media appearances have attracted the wrong kind of notice. “Trump thinks he's saying too much,” one Republican close to the White House told me.

Discussion: Mediaite

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
John Kelly intends to remain as Trump's chief of staff through 2020 reelection bid

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Politico, New Republic, CNN, Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and Associated Press

Murray Waas / NYR Daily:

Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It — Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller—including highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump's own top aides—provides some of the strongest evidence …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Hill Reporter, Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:

The Justice Department Finds ‘No Responsive Records’ to Support a Trump Speech — President Donald Trump delivering an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on February 28, 2017 (Source: Wikimedia/Office of the Speaker) — “According to data provided by the Department of Justice …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Online NewsHour:

WATCH LIVE: ICE, Border Patrol testify at Senate hearing on family separations — The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT today. Watch the immigration officials' remarks in the player above. — But a hearing scheduled for Tuesday on the topic may have a wider focus …

Discussion: The Week and Associated Press

Julia Ainsley / NBC News:
Top U.S. officials say they got no warning of family separation policy

Discussion: MSNBC

Karolina Rivas / ABC News:
Senators demand answers from immigration officials on family reunification

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg:
Trump Official Says He Warned of Child Trauma From Family Separations

Discussion: The Democrats, BloombergQuint and NumbersUSA Education …

Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post:

Trump administration must stop giving psychotropic drugs to migrant children without consent, judge rules — A federal judge on Monday found that U.S. government officials have been giving psychotropic medication to migrant children at a Texas facility without first seeking the consent …

Discussion: Reveal, Splinter, ThinkProgress, The Week, Mediaite and Shakesville

Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:

Collins Sides With GOP Leaders in Kavanaugh Documents Fight — While Democrats are crying foul after Republican leaders angled to limit disclosures of documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's past work, one of the GOP senators whose vote may be pivotal to his confirmation says she's just fine with it.

Discussion: Political Wire

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker: Should Democrats Bother Fighting Brett Kavanaugh's Confirmation? History Suggests Yes

Bloomberg:

Here's How America Uses Its Land — There are many statistical measures that show how productive the U.S. is. Its economy is the largest in the world and grew at a rate of 4.1 percent last quarter, its fastest pace since 2014. The unemployment rate is near the lowest mark in a half century.

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:

Trump says Koch brothers are a ‘total joke’ — Koch Network distances from Trump divisiveness — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump railed Tuesday against billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, accusing them of being against key components of his populist agenda …

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, Bloomberg, CNBC, New Republic and Mediaite

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Steve Bannon's fiery threat to candidates: 'You take Koch money, it's going to be toxic'

Discussion: The Mahablog, Vox, Politico, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway and Hit & Run

Duncan Campbell / ComputerWeekly.com:

Briton ran pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign that helped Trump deny Russian links — A British IT manager and former hacker from Darlington ran a disinformation campaign that duped former US intelligence agents and provided Donald Trump with manufactured “evidence” to deny that Russia interfered with the US election

Discussion: New Republic and emptywheel

Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:

Topher Grace on Dating Ivanka Trump: 'It Wasn't a Political Statement' … On Saturday, The New York Times published a curious piece titled “Still Standing, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Step Back in the Spotlight.” — The article, which reads like favor-currying agitprop …

Discussion: East Bay Times

Jeffry Bartash / MarketWatch:

Worker pay and benefits climbing at fastest pace in 10 years, ECI finds — The numbers: American workers are finally reaping the benefits of the lowest unemployment rate and best jobs market in decades: Wages and benefits are rising at the fastest pace in a decade.

Discussion: Power Line and The Rush Limbaugh Show

Tana Ganeva / Raw Story:

WATCH: Safeway calls cops on black mother for giving food to the homeless because they thought she was a shoplifter — Altruism can now be added to the list of benign activities black people apparently can't engage in without being treated like criminals. — Sunnyvale, California resident …

Discussion: CBS San Francisco and The Root

Aris Folley / The Hill:

Ex-FBI chief of staff: Collusion is ‘absolutely a crime’ — , on Monday said collusion is “absolutely a crime,” a day after President Trump — 's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said it was not a crime. — “Collusion is a crime,” Rosenberg said on MSNBC's “MTP Daily.”

Discussion: IJR, Hullabaloo and CNBC

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:

A Migrant Boy Rejoins His Mother, but He's Not the Same — Parents reunited with young children are reporting mental health issues. One 5-year-old boy has started a new life with his mother in Philadelphia, but signs of trauma remain. — PHILADELPHIA — Before they were separated …

Discussion: Shareblue Media

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed News:

Kushner Family Newspaper Cuts Ties With A Writer Who Attacked Kremlin Foes — The Kushner family-owned New York Observer has cut ties with a writer who has, since 2014, authored dozens of pro-Kremlin articles for the website, the most recent a story in April offering Russia's spin …

Discussion: Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:

Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children — It's not the violence or the addiction of the hit game that bothers mom and dad—it's the losing — Ally Hicks fretted over her 10-year-old son playing the hugely popular shoot-em-up videogame “Fortnite.”

Discussion: The Big Lead

The Daily Beast:

The 2020 Dem Class Is Already Frantically Making Moves Behind the Scenes … If you're a member of the media, Eric Garcetti wants you to know: He's thinking about running for president. — Late last month, the Los Angeles mayor sat for an hour-long interview with Vox's Ezra Klein to discuss the …

Raphael Satter / Associated Press:

Russian secret-spilling site Dossier steps into spotlight — LONDON (AP) — Over the past three months, a handful of highly placed Russians have discovered their secrets seeping onto the web. — It happened to a Russian Interior Ministry official whose emails were published online in April.

Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:

Maybe You Were Thinking About Eating Raw Centipedes. Don't. — Dried or powdered centipedes are used in Chinese traditional medicine. But uncooked specimens may contain a parasite that infects the brain, scientists report. — Scientists in China now have hard evidence that eating raw centipedes is a really bad idea.

Ryan Gaydos / Fox News:

LeBron James accuses Trump of using sports to divide the nation — LeBron James criticized President Trump on Monday, accusing him of trying to divide the country by using sports as his focal point. — The new Los Angeles Lakers star said Trump created a wedge by capitalizing …

Discussion: CNN, LifeZette, Daily Wire, Washington Post, The Daily Caller and IJR

Karl Baker / delawareonline:

Priest punched, doused in wine, beaten with bottle, police say — 7/31/18 John J. Jankowski Jr. & Damian Giletto — Father William Graney and another Resurrection Parish staff member were assaulted on Monday at the Pike Creek Catholic church, according to New Castle County Police.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

'He doesn't like bullies': The story of the 37-year-old who took over the New York Times and is taking on Trump — The new reporter was sharp, humble and eager to learn. Arthur had snazzier shoes than his colleagues at the Oregonian, but this was the only hint that he was a Sulzberger …

more at Mediagazer »

Joel Rubin / Axios:

The risks and potential gains of Trump's go-it-alone diplomacy — President Trump's call for unconditional talks with Iran should not have come as a surprise, given that he has made a habit of personally engaging American adversaries. Sometimes, as with North Korea, after threatening them …

Discussion: Vox, The Guardian and One America News Network

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / The Guardian:

An open letter to the NFL's owners — To deny professional athletes the right to express dissent in a peaceful manner is a disgrace to the Constitution, the opposite of patriotism and shameful moral weakness — Dear NFL owners: — Whew! What a tumultuous year for your league.

Discussion: IJR, East Bay Times, The Daily Caller and The Big Lead