memeorandum: The Watergate ‘Road Map’ and the Coming Mueller Report (Lawfare)

2:10 PM ET, September 14, 2018

Top Items:

A Sexual-Misconduct Allegation Against the Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Stirs Tension Among Democrats in Congress — On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the F.B.I. for investigation.

New York Times:

Letter Claims Attempted Assault by a Teenage Brett Kavanaugh — WASHINGTON — A secretive letter shared with authorities by the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee charges that a teenage Brett M. Kavanaugh and a male friend trapped a teenage girl in a bedroom during a party …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Outside the Beltway

Amanda Terkel / HuffPost:

Woman Alleges Brett Kavanaugh Attempted To Rape Her In High School — The bombshell revelation comes a week before the Supreme Court nominee is set to receive a vote before the Senate Judiciary Committee. — A woman is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempting to rape …

Discussion: Vox, IJR and Conservative Review

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Wait, That Allegation Sat on Dianne Feinstein's Desk Since Late July?

Discussion: RedState, The Hill, Breitbart and POLITICUSUSA

Patrick Leahy / Washington Post:
Brett Kavanaugh misled the Senate under oath. I cannot support his nomination.

Discussion: TalkLeft, SCOTUSblog, USA Today and Althouse

Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
Kavanaugh denies decades-old allegation of potential sexual misconduct

Discussion: Associated Press

Weekly Standard:
Kavanaugh Needs No Defense

Discussion: Fox News Insider, The Intercept, The Federalist and Sean Hannity, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

Manafort plans to plead guilty to second set of charges — President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing Friday morning, officials said. — The planned plea, if accepted by a judge, would short-circuit his second trial scheduled …

Discussion: Raw Story, Conservative News Today, Talking Points Memo, Above the Law, Shakesville, Towleroad Gay News and The Mahablog

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Manafort to cooperate with Mueller as part of plea deal — President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller under a plea agreement revealed Friday. — Manafort appeared in a Washington, D.C., courtroom Friday morning …

Discussion: CNBC, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Shareblue Media, Raw Story and The Daily Beast

Andrew Prokop / Vox:

Paul Manafort has agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller — The former Trump campaign chair appeared in court and pleaded guilty Friday. — It finally happened — Paul Manafort flipped. — The former Trump campaign chair appeared in court in Washington on Friday and pleaded guilty to a reduced set of charges.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Washington Post, Common Dreams and Lawfare

emptywheel:

Checkmate: The Manafort Cooperation Is Pardon Proof — I was virtually certain that the plea deal Manafort is pleading to today would include cooperation — and I was correct. Andrew Weissmann told Amy Berman Jackson that the deal does require Manafort cooperation.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Political Wire

Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:
Former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort Is Expected To Plead Guilty And Avoid A Second Trial

Discussion: Vox, Reuters, Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, The Guardian, CNN, Raw Story, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, Bloomberg and BloombergQuint

Fox News:
Paul Manafort to plead guilty as part of plea deal with special counsel

Discussion: Chicks On The Right

Matthew Mosk / ABC News:
Paul Manafort plea deal includes ‘broad’ cooperation with special counsel

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Breitbart, Mediaite and Raw Story

NBC News:
Paul Manafort expected to plead guilty in Mueller probe

Discussion: New York Magazine, Bustle, Raw Story, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA and thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:
Manafort will cooperate with Mueller

Discussion: Hit & Run, Roll Call and Balloon Juice

Aruna Viswanatha / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Ex-Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Reaches Deal to Plead Guilty

Discussion: Splinter, Associated Press, New York Times and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort agrees to plead guilty in deal with special counsel Robert Mueller

Discussion: TalkLeft and The Root

Sharon LaFraniere / New York Times:
Paul Manafort Agrees to Cooperate With Special Counsel; Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charges

Discussion: Axios, Outside the Beltway, Bustle, Lawyers, Guns & Money and twitchy.com

Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Go deeper: Read the charges against Paul Manafort

Discussion: Politico

NBC News:
Paul Manafort pleads guilty in Mueller probe, will cooperate with prosecutors

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Katherine Faulders / ABC News:
Tentative deal reached between Manafort and special counsel: Sources

Vivian Wang / New York Times:

Democratic Insurgents Topple 6 New York Senate Incumbents — Years of anger at a group of Democratic state senators who had collaborated with Republicans boiled over on Thursday, as primary voters ousted nearly all of them in favor of challengers who had called them traitors and sham progressives.

Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Cynthia Nixon camp partially blames high turnout for loss

Discussion: New York Times, The Ringer, ABC News, The Daily Beast, Weekly Standard, Althouse, Washington Times, Front Page Magazine, Associated Press and New York Daily News

Jeffery C. Mays / New York Times:
Letitia James Wins Attorney General Primary, Defeating 3 Rivals

Discussion: The Daily Beast, News One, Bustle and The Daily Caller

New York Times:
5 Takeaways From New York's Primary Election Results

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Outside the Beltway, The Atlantic, The Daily Caller and Towleroad Gay News

Gardiner Harris / New York Times:

State Department Spent $52,701 on Curtains for Nikki Haley's Residence — WASHINGTON — The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley's official residence as ambassador to the United Nations …

Bridget Read / Vogue:
Nikki Haley Is the Latest White House Big Spender, Thanks to Her $52,000 Curtains

Discussion: Sean Hannity and Conservative Review

Lawfare:

The Watergate ‘Road Map’ and the Coming Mueller Report — According to countless media accounts and President Trump's own lawyers, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is writing some kind of report on allegations of presidential obstruction of justice. Exactly what sort of report this may be is unclear.

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Legal Experts Urge Release of Watergate Report to Offer Mueller a Road Map — WASHINGTON — A question has loomed over Washington: What will the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, do when he wraps up his investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia and whether President Trump obstructed justice?

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

“None of Them Is Where the President Is”: It's Trump vs. Trumpworld Over North Korea — Is this what today's “resistance” looks like inside the Trump Administration? — In the past few days, as a “tremendously big” and “tremendously wet” hurricane barrelled toward the Carolinas …

Discussion: Raw Story

bellingcat:

Skripal Poisoning Suspect's Passport Data Shows Link to Security Services — Read The Insider Russian report on this same topic here. — An ongoing Bellingcat investigation conducted jointly with The Insider Russia has confirmed through uncovered passport data that the two Russian nationals identified …

Discussion: The Guardian

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Suspect Indeed: Odd Moments From RT's Interview With The Novichok ‘Lads’

Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post:

The threat to democracy — from the left — For several years now, scholars have argued that the world is experiencing a “democratic recession.” They have noted that the movement of countries toward democracy has slowed or stopped and even, in some places, reversed.

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:

Tucker Carlson Railroads ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer’ Michael Avenatti in Trainwreck Fox News Interview — The nearly 13-minute shoutfest represented everything that is wrong with America today. — Michael Avenatti has to be regretting going on Tucker Carlson's show right now.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Conservative News Today, Breitbart and Political Wire

Bill Scher / Politico: Michael Avenatti Is Winning the 2020 Democratic Primary

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Papadopoulos Addresses Key Question Looming Over Collusion Conspiracy Theory — In an exclusive interview, George Papadopoulos says nobody on the Trump campaign asked him to follow up on a professor's claims to know about Hillary Clinton emails. — Papadopoulos says he cannot remember …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republican Extremism Is Turning Democrats Left on Health Care — When President Obama urged Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, a plan modeled after Mitt Romney's health-care plan, conservatives decried it as a government takeover of health care. Obama explained that his plan did no such thing.

Discussion: Weekly Standard

KDFW:

Lawyers “disgusted” by release of search warrant showing marijuana found in Botham Jean's apartment — DALLAS - Following the shooting death of Botham Jean by the hands of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, multiple search warrants were executed at Jean's apartment as part of the investigation.