memeorandum: As the Russia investigation ends, experts see two years of American political dysfunction as a win for Putin (Greg Miller/Washington Post)

2:35 PM ET, April 19, 2019

Top Items:

Mueller Hints at a National-Security Nightmare — The missing piece of the report is a counterintelligence investigation that should set off alarm bells about our democracy and security. — Mr. Geltzer is the executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Just Security and Raw Story

George T. Conway III / Washington Post:

George Conway: Trump is a cancer on the presidency. Congress should remove him. — George T. Conway III is a lawyer in New York. — So it turns out that, indeed, President Trump was not exonerated at all, and certainly not “totally” or “completely,” as he claimed.

Discussion: Vox, Snopes.com, Boston Globe, IJR, Politico, The Hill, Fox News, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Washingtonian, Splinter, Washington Times, CNN, Mediaite, Raw Story, Little Green Footballs, New York Post and The Nation

ABC News:

5 key takeaways from special counsel Robert Mueller's report — The report is a trove of information about the current presidency. — While there will be no legal case brought against President Donald Trump by special counsel Robert Mueller's team, the much-anticipated redacted report …

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Comparing Barr's Excerpts With Mueller's Report — Attorney General William P. Barr sent a letter to Congress last month citing brief fragments from the Mueller report. Now that the document is public, his selections are coming under scrutiny. — When Attorney General William P. Barr sent Congress …

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, Raw Story, Northeastern and Power Line

David French / National Review:

The Mueller Report Should Shock Our Conscience — I've finished reading the entire Mueller report, and I must confess that even as a longtime, quite open critic of Donald Trump, I was surprised at the sheer scope, scale, and brazenness of the lies, falsehoods, and misdirections detailed by the Special Counsel's Office.

Discussion: Townhall, Raw Story, Conservative Tribune, wabe.org, NPR, CNN, Quartz, The Week, Mediaite and Shakesville

New York Times:

A Portrait of the White House and Its Culture of Dishonesty — WASHINGTON — As President Trump met with advisers in the Oval Office in May 2017 to discuss replacements for the F.B.I. director he had just fired, Attorney General Jeff Sessions slipped out of the room to take a call.

Discussion: Washington Post, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Daily Wire, Breitbart, The Intercept and Slate

Lawfare:

What Mueller Found on Russia and on Obstruction: A First Analysis — “Really the best day since he got elected,” said Kellyanne Conway, the president's counselor, about a day on which 400 pages dropped into the public's lap describing relentless presidential misconduct and serial engagements between his campaign and a foreign actor.

Discussion: USA Today, Salon, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Outside the Beltway, Vox and Breitbart

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Trump suspected that former White House counsel Don McGahn wore a wire — Late in Don McGahn's tenure as White House counsel, President Trump became so suspicious that he wondered aloud whether McGahn was wearing a wire, a source familiar with the president's private conversations told Axios.

Discussion: New York Times, Townhall, Law & Crime, Raw Story, Mediaite, DCReport.org and Washington Monthly

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:

Sarah Sanders grilled on her contradictory statements highlighted in Mueller report — The report found that Sanders' claims were “not founded on anything.” — In a tense exchange on “Good Morning America,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to defend statements …

Discussion: USA Today, Sunlight Foundation, TIME, ThinkProgress, IJR, New York Times, The Guardian and Breitbart

Timothy O'Brien / Bloomberg:

Does Mueller Think Trump's Guilty? Read Closely … You wouldn't have known from Attorney General William Barr's succinct and misleading four-page summary that fully 21 pages of the 448-page report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, released publicly on Thursday, are devoted to an important …

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
The Mueller Report Won't End Trump's Presidency, But It Sure Makes Him Look Bad

Discussion: New York Times, Vox, CNN, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Columbia Journalism Review, Politico and Wired, more at Mediagazer »

Renato Mariotti / Politico:
The Obstruction Case Against Trump that Barr Tried to Hide

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, RedState and Breitbart

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed News:
How We Characterized Michael Cohen's Testimony

Discussion: Politico, Daily Mail, VICE News, Daily Wire, The Wrap, Vox, Mediaite and Breitbart, more at Mediagazer »

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
Mueller's Report Speaks Volumes

Discussion: RedState, Instapundit, Daily Wire, twitchy.com, Power Line, New York Times and The Gateway Pundit

Abe Greenwald / New York Post: The Mueller report just left egg on Democrats' faces

Greg Miller / Washington Post:
As the Russia investigation ends, experts see two years of American political dysfunction as a win for Putin

Discussion: Politico

Politico:
The Surprises in the Mueller Report

Discussion: Lawfare, Washington Post, New Republic, Washington Monthly, Slate and New York Times

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Mueller, Trump, and ‘two years of bullshit’

Discussion: Instapundit and Daily Wire

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: Trump Beat the Rap, but Mueller Uncovered a Historic Scandal

Ezra Klein / Vox:
The best defense of Trump is still a damning indictment

Discussion: Breitbart, IJR and USA Today

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:
Release of Mueller report finally sets Trump — and America — free

Discussion: Fox News and The Gateway Pundit

Eli Lake / Bloomberg: How Not to Obstruct Justice — Trump gave Mueller a steady stream of ammunition.

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic:

Joe Biden Is Running for President — Joe Biden is running. The former vice president will make his candidacy official with a video announcement next Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions who have been told about them by top aides. — Seriously, he's actually made a decision.

Discussion: Associated Press, Fox News, Vanity Fair, Townhall, Daily Wire, LifeNews.com, Politico, Trending Home, Breitbart, Splinter, Washington Times and Mediaite

Brian Schwartz / CNBC: Biden hires over a dozen senior advisors from Obama administration for 2020 campaign: Sources

Philip Elliott / TIME: Joe Biden Will Announce His Presidential Campaign Next Week, Unless He Doesn't, But He Probably Will

NBC10 Boston: Buttigieg to Join Stop & Shop Workers on the Picket Line in Malden

Alex Pareene / New Republic:

Democrats Are Hoping You Don't Understand What “Impeachment” Entails — The 1974 vote in the House of Representatives to give the Judiciary Committee broad subpoena power for its investigation into whether or not President Richard Nixon committed any impeachable offenses passed 410-4.

Discussion: The Federalist, Vox, Breitbart, Mediaite and Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Democratic equivocation over impeachment is a moral and political disaster

Discussion: Crooked Media, No More Mister Nice Blog, Rolling Stone, Roll Call and CNN

Washington Post:
Mueller report updates: Nadler subpoenas full findings; White House calls it ‘political grandstanding’

Discussion: Breitbart, Axios, Politico, Media Matters for America, IndieWire and The Moderate Voice

Michael Hirsh / Foreign Policy:

How Trump Practices ‘Escalation Dominance’ — “You have restraint on your side. He has no restraint. So you lose,” says outgoing French Ambassador Gérard Araud. — Following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville, Gérard Araud has made a study of the United States …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite

Julian Borger / The Guardian:
‘Whimsical, uninformed’: French ambassador's parting verdict on Trump

Discussion: The Local

Yara Bayoumy / The Atlantic: The French Ambassador Is Retiring Today. Here's What He Really Thinks About Washington.

Jerry Iannelli / Miami New Times:

South Florida Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Democratic Lawmakers, Including Ilhan Omar … Lately, Donald Trump fans have enjoyed attacking left-leaning Americans. Last year, for instance, Miami-area resident Cesar Sayoc sent pipe bombs to prominent liberals around the country and went to jail.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:

Re-Read Bill Barr's Infamous Letter With Full Quotes From the Mueller Report — Context is everything. Trump's attorney general is a partisan hack — Attorney General William Barr released a letter to Congress on March 24, 2019, purporting to summarize the top-line conclusion of the Mueller report.

Claire Spellberg / Decider: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump After Mueller Report: “That's Not How an Innocent Person Reacts”

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
House Dems in talks with DOJ for Mueller testimony

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Joe.My.God., Daily Kos and Washington Post

Leigh Ann Caldwell / NBC News:

Possible 2020 contender Michael Bennet gets clean bill of health after cancer treatment — Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is contemplating jumping in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential race, has been given a clean bill of health after undergoing surgery to remove cancer, his office said in a statement.

Discussion: Axios

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Sen. Michael Bennet's cancer surgery was ‘completely successful,’ spokeswoman says

Discussion: Politico

New York Times:

Pete Buttigieg Fired South Bend's Black Police Chief. It Still Stings. — SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Pete Buttigieg had been mayor just 13 weeks when he faced a leadership crisis. — It was March 2012, and 300 residents of South Bend, Ind. solemnly marched to the Martin Luther King Center …

Griffin Connolly / Roll Call:

Rep. Hunter pretends to cross the Mexico border and gets called out for violating his parole — Hunter recorded the video as part of a ride-along with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol — House Democrats press on with investigations after Mueller report release Trump-Russia collusion …

Kevin Poulsen / The Daily Beast:

Mueller Report: Assange Smeared Seth Rich to Cover for Russians — Julian Assange repeatedly blamed Seth Rich, the murdered DNC staffer, for Russia's leaks. The Mueller report shows that Assange was lying from the start. — Julian Assange not only knew that a murdered Democratic National …

Discussion: TheBlaze, Lawyers, Guns & Money and NBC News

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Sarah Sanders admitted she lied to the White House press. Does she have any credibility left? — New York (CNN Business)"Not founded on anything" is the new “alternative facts.” — The term applies to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and her misleading statements from the press briefing room podium.

Discussion: IJR