memeorandum: Mueller didn't charge Trump — but his report is a brutal indictment (Jonathan Allen/NBC News)

3:25 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

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: New Republic, Vox, Washington Post, Raw Story and Northeastern

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 …

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.

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

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, Law & Crime, Raw Story, Townhall, Mediaite and DCReport.org

Renato Mariotti / Politico:

The Obstruction Case Against Trump that Barr Tried to Hide — For nearly a month, the American public has been under the impression, thanks to a four-page “summary” by Attorney General William Barr, that Robert Mueller could not decide whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice because of …

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

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

The Mueller Report Won't End Trump's Presidency, But It Sure Makes Him Look Bad — In the most memorable scene in the most anticipated government report in recent history, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, takes us inside the Oval Office on May 17, 2017.

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

Lawfare:
What Mueller Found on Russia and on Obstruction: A First Analysis

Discussion: Salon, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vox and Breitbart

Timothy O'Brien / Bloomberg: Does Mueller Think Trump's Guilty? Read Closely

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:
Sarah Sanders grilled on her contradictory statements highlighted in Mueller report

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

Tom Nichols / USA Today:
Mueller report: Donald Trump failed us as commander-in-chief

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Politico

Yuval Levin / National Review:
Another Warning Sign

Discussion: Mother Jones

Michael R. Bloomberg / Bloomberg:
Mueller Did His Job. Now It's Our Turn

Discussion: HuffPost, Politico, Slate, Fox News, The Week, The Guardian, DCReport.org and BuzzFeed News

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic: The Mueller Report Could Alienate the Voters Republicans Need

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, MarketWatch and The Gateway Pundit

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:
Mueller didn't charge Trump — but his report is a brutal indictment

Discussion: Media Matters for America and The Guardian

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

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: Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite

Nicole Lafond / Talking Points Memo: FL Man Arrested For Threatening To Murder Several Dems, Including Omar And Tlaib

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, Vanity Fair, Daily Wire, Politico, Fox News, Townhall, LifeNews.com, 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

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

Julian Borger / The Guardian:

‘Whimsical, uninformed’: French ambassador's parting verdict on Trump — Gérard Araud compares regime to court of Louis XIV and warns UK over post-Brexit trade — The outgoing French ambassador to the US has compared the Trump administration to the court of King Louis XIV …

Discussion: IJR and The Local

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

Griffin Connolly / Roll Call:

Rep. Hunter pretends to cross the Mexico border and gets called out for violating his parole — Rep. Duncan Hunter and his Democratic challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar traded Twitter barbs Thursday over a video Hunter posted where he appeared to suggest he was crossing the southern border into Mexico.

Ken Stone / Times of San Diego:
Rep. Hunter Hops Border Barrier — But Not Into Mexico as Video Suggests

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

Mike Pence / Fox News:
Vice President Mike Pence: Congress must act to end the crisis on our border

Discussion: IJR

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, Raw Story, Daily Kos and The Daily Caller

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

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

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

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

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

Scott Jennings / CNN:
Mueller's report looks bad for Obama

Discussion: USA Today, Conservative Tribune and Mediaite

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”

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 …

The Daily Beast:

Matt Gaetz Hires Speechwriter Fired From White House Over White Nationalist Conference — Dr. Darren Beattie was pushed out of the administration over his appearance alongside alt-right figures. Less than a year later, he has a new gig on the Hill. — One of President Donald Trump's top …

Discussion: Raw Story, Politico, Axios and Mediaite

Simon Romero / New York Times:

Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint — [Read the latest edition of Crossing the Border, a limited-run newsletter about life where the United States and Mexico meet. Sign up here to receive the next issue in your inbox.] — ALBUQUERQUE — A right-wing militia group operating …