memeorandum: Trump allies back fund for aides' legal defense in Mueller probe (Politico)

8:15 AM ET, August 7, 2018

Top Items:

Giuliani preparing letter to Mueller expressing ‘real reluctance’ over obstruction questions — Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's lead attorney for the ongoing special counsel investigation, said Monday that Trump's legal team is planning to send a letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and The Week

Rick Wilson / Rolling Stone:

Trump's Tweets May Actually Be His Undoing — The impulsive president has backed himself into a corner, and Robert Mueller knows it — President Trump's manic Twitter dysentery over the weekend contained more than a few nuggets that would have shamed, embarrassed or mortified normal presidents in a normal era.

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Vox and The Daily Caller

Dana Bash / CNN:

President urged to stop tweeting on Trump Tower meeting — Did Trump Tower meeting violate this law? — (CNN)President Donald Trump has been urged to stop tweeting about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's top advisers and several Russians, a source familiar with discussions tells CNN.

Discussion: American Prospect, Lawfare, Just Security, Raw Story, ABC News, New York Times, Sputnik International, HuffPost, POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite, TIME, Hullabaloo, AOL, Law & Crime and Political Wire

New York Times:

Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort — ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's right-hand man for years, began testifying against his former boss on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. He is considered the most important witness in Mr. Manafort's trial on tax and bank fraud charges.

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, The Atlantic, The Week, CNBC and ThinkProgress

Fox News:

Manafort prosecutors, Judge Ellis engage in 10-minute courtroom spat — Manafort trial judge says conspiracy can't be proved without testimony from Gates. Peter Doocy reports. — ALEXANDRIA, Va. - After jurors were dismissed Monday in the Paul Manafort trial Monday …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Manafort prosecution's frustration with judge leads to fiery clashes — For days, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis has been cracking the whip at prosecutors in the Paul Manafort fraud trial, prodding them again and again to keep the case moving forward and to drop matters he considers irrelevant.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Cristian Farias / New York Magazine:

Paul Manafort's First Trial Is a Sideshow. The Next One Won't Be. — Back in May, T.S. Ellis, the veteran federal judge who is overseeing Paul Manafort's first trial in Virginia, whipped the Fox News set into a frenzy when he seemed to berate prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller.

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Manafort trial Day 5: Gates sings

Discussion: The Week, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News and The Daily Caller

Victor Morton / Washington Times:

West Hollywood City Council passes resolution to remove Trump Walk of Fame star — The West Hollywood City Council called Monday night for President Trump's star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to a tweet by the city's mayor. — “West Hollywood City council unanimously …

Discussion: EW.com, CNN, Talking Points Memo and Daily Wire

Ryan Parker / Hollywood Reporter:
West Hollywood City Council Approves Resolution Urging Removal of Trump's Walk of Fame Star

Discussion: National Review, Washington Times, Hill Reporter, The Daily Beast, fox8.com, Chicks On The Right, TheBlaze, VICE and CBS Sacramento

Aris Folley / The Hill:
West Hollywood City Council to vote on removing Trump's Walk of Fame star

Discussion: CBS Los Angeles, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, Sputnik International and Daily Wire

Mark Leibovich / New York Times:

This is the Way Paul Ryan's Speakership Ends — The Republican leader is walking away. Don't ask him about Trump anymore. — Paul Ryan has a thing about punctuality and routine. They bring a sense of order to the chaos that he otherwise must try to maneuver through.

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: A clean test of the political climate in Ohio

Discussion: Las Vegas Review-Journal and The Guardian

Globe and Mail:

Saudi Arabia's bold move has nothing to do with Canada — Bessma Momani is Professor at the University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs. She's a senior fellow at Centre for International Governance and Innovation and non-resident fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington.

Discussion: Financial Times, CNN, New York Times and ThinkProgress

BBC:
Saudi Arabia suspends Toronto flights in row with Canada

Discussion: CNBC, Sputnik International, Washington Post, Splinter, BloombergQuint and Vox

Alex Lockie / Business Insider:
Saudi Arabia appeared to threaten Canada with a 9/11-style attack in a feud over human rights

Discussion: The Atlantic, NPR and One Mile at a Time

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

LISTEN: Don Jr.'s Line Drops After Ingraham Asks About Conflicting Statements on Trump Tower Meeting — President Donald Trump's wonderful son Don Jr. called into Laura Ingraham's radio show on Monday, and had some well-timed technical difficulties. — Ingraham questioned Don Jr …

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Times, HuffPost, Washington Examiner and Washington Monthly

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press: AP Explains: Why the 2016 Trump Tower meeting matters

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Donald Trump Jr.'s Potential Legal Troubles, Explained

Discussion: Washington Post, Hill Reporter, WBUR, New Republic and Common Dreams

William D. Ruckelshaus / Washington Post:

Only one other president has ever acted this desperate — William D. Ruckelshaus served as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as deputy attorney general in 1973. He was also administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1970 to 1973 and 1983 to 1985.

Discussion: Spectator USA

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:

In a strikingly ignorant tweet, Trump gets almost everything about California wildfires wrong — No one would mistake President Trump for an expert on climate change or water policy, but a tweet he issued late Sunday about California's wildfires deserves some sort of award for most glaring misstatements …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, San Francisco Chronicle, Townhall, ABC News, Axios, ThinkProgress, HuffPost and Conservative News Today

Lisa Friedman / New York Times:
Trump Inaccurately Claims California Is Wasting Water as Fires Burn

Discussion: Vox, Fox News, Politico, CBS Chicago, Pacific Standard, Second Nexus, New Republic, CNN, Washington Post and Mother Jones

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:

Mike Pence's moral case for removing a president from office — (CNN)Vice President Mike Pence once argued the president of the United States should be held to the highest moral standards to determine whether he should resign or be removed from office. — Pence made the argument in two columns …

Discussion: Raw Story and Political Wire

Adam Kelsey / ABC News:

In Ohio, Democrats seek another special election upset with midterm momentum at stake — The way Danny O'Connor tells it, a run for the House of Representatives didn't seriously cross his mind until this past January. Now, barely seven months later and amid a nationally restless political atmosphere …

Discussion: Politico, Associated Press and HuffPost

Politico:
What Ohio's special election will tell us about midterms

Discussion: ThinkProgress and CNN

Donie O'Sullivan / CNNMoney:

West Virginia to introduce mobile phone voting for midterm elections — Why voting in the US is so hard — West Virginians serving overseas will be the first in the country to cast federal election ballots using a smartphone app, a move designed to make voting in November's election easier for troops living abroad.

Discussion: Reuters, 9to5Mac, Engadget and The Week, more at Techmeme »

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed News:

Jared Kushner Used To Personally Order The Deletion Of Stories At His Newspaper — Jared Kushner personally ordered a software developer at his newspaper to remove stories critical of his friends and real estate peers. — Now a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Trump …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Political Wire and Deadspin, more at Mediagazer »

Kate Wagner / Vox:

Betsy DeVos's summer home deserves a special place in McMansion Hell — Kate Wagner dissects the shingle-style Michigan summer home of the education secretary. — Two weeks ago, somebody untied Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's $40 million yacht from its mooring.

Discussion: Boing Boing

Isaac Chotiner / Slate:

No One Voted for Facebook and Apple to Deal With Alex Jones — On Sunday, Apple announced that it was removing most of Alex Jones' content from its podcast feeds. The chief of the website and broadcaster Infowars, Jones is a longtime conspiracy theorist whose prominence has risen recently thanks …

Discussion: The Federalist, HuffPost and CNBC, more at Techmeme »

Reid Wilson / The Hill:

GOP fears steep losses in state legislatures — LOS ANGELES — Republicans hoping to hold on to their majorities in state legislative chambers across the country are nervously eying President Trump — 's anemic approval rating, concerned that a wave of voter anger could undo years of gains.

CBS Sacramento:

Sikh Man Attacked, Told To ‘Go Back To Your Country’ In Stanislaus County — KEYES (CBS13) - A well-known member of the Stanislaus County community was brutally beaten while placing campaign signs, and police are investigating it as a hate crime. — It was Tuesday night in Keyes …

Discussion: The Hill, CBS San Francisco, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, TheBlaze, Splinter and Talking Points Memo

Dan Alexander / Forbes:

New Details About Wilbur Ross' Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting — I write about Donald Trump, the people around him, and how they affect business. Before he won the presidency, I covered billionaires, industrial America and sports. My favorite stories focus on the hands-dirty businesses between …

David Larter / Defense News:

The US Navy's top acquisition priority stumbles out of the gate — The U.S. Navy's $122.3 billion Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program is off to an inauspicious start after faulty welding was discovered in several missile tubes destined for both the Columbia and Virginia-class programs …

Financial Times:

Poor Iranians bear brunt of sanctions as food prices soar — Tehran's municipal markets used to be notorious for their long queues, as shoppers lined up to buy meat, vegetables and fruit in bulk at discounted prices. But today the customers are far fewer.

Tonya Alanez / Sun-Sentinel:

School board asks judge to hold Sun Sentinel in contempt over school-shooter report — In a court filing, the Broward County School Board alleges the South Florida Sun Sentinel intentionally published information it knew a judge had ordered to be redacted. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) South Florida Sun Sentinel

Discussion: Florida Politics and IJR

YouTube:

Escape At Dannemora (2018) | Official Trailer | SHOWTIME Series … Based on a prison break in upstate New York that spawned a massive manhunt. Starring Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano and Benicio Del Toro. Escape At Dannemora premieres Sunday, November 18 at 10pm ET/PT. — #EscapeAtDannemora

Politico:

Dems launch lieutenant governors group to compete with GOP — Democratic lieutenant governors are forming a campaign group to rival the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association, the latest bid by Democrats to catch up to Republicans in down-ballot fundraising.

Discussion: Axios

Hamilton Nolan / Splinter:

Someone Is Going to Get Killed — Before too long, a reporter will become a direct casualty of the Trump era. — With the ever-present caveat that predictions are worthless: an American journalist is going to get murdered as a direct result of our current political climate.

Grace Schulman / New York Times:

The Nation Magazine Betrays a Poet — and Itself — I was the magazine's poetry editor for 35 years. Never once did we apologize for publishing a poem. — Ms. Schulman was poetry editor at The Nation from 1971 to 2006. — During the 35 years that I edited poetry for The Nation magazine …

Discussion: The Federalist and The Atlantic

Stef W. Kight / Axios:

Exclusive poll: Trump's iron wall of defense — Data: SurveyMonkey online poll conducted August 1-3, 2018 among a total sample of 2,421 adults living in the United States. Margins of error at the 95% confidence level are ±3 percentage points for Total, ±9.5 for African-American women …

Manu Raju / CNN:

Trump Supreme Court pick: Presidents can ignore laws they think are unconstitutional — Kavanaugh reveals views on Mueller probe — (CNN)Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2013 asserted that it's a “traditional exercise” of presidential power to ignore laws the White House views as unconstitutional …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com and Political Wire

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:

Joe Arpaio on Sacha Baron Cohen: I ‘Never Agreed’ to Blow Job From Trump … Former sheriff and current GOP Senate candidate Joe Arpaio apparently has no idea that he accepted the hypothetical offer of an “amazing blow job” from President Donald Trump on the latest episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's Who Is America?

Discussion: Phoenix New Times, Arizona Republic, One America News Network and IJR