memeorandum: What happens if Donald Trump refuses to admit he lost in 2020? (Chris Cillizza/CNN)

5:30 PM ET, May 6, 2019

Top Items:

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

Trump would have been charged with obstruction were he not president, hundreds of former federal prosecutors assert — More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings …

Discussion: Townhall, Mother Jones, twitchy.com, Mediaite, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Raw Story and New York Post

DOJ Alumni Statement:

STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS — We are former federal prosecutors. We served under both Republican and Democratic administrations at different levels of the federal system: as line attorneys, supervisors, special prosecutors, United States Attorneys, and senior officials at the Department of Justice.

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:

DOJ moves to fend off Barr contempt vote — The Justice Department on Monday tried to head off a contempt of Congress proceeding against Attorney General William Barr, offering House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) the chance to negotiate about the committee's subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report.

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Post, One America News Network, The Week, twitchy.com, Breitbart, Daily Wire, The Root, CNN, The Resurgent and Daily Kos

Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:

With Mueller on Justice staff, Barr has sway over testimony — WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller was expected to step down days after concluding his investigation in March. Yet he remains a Justice Department employee — and the department won't say why.

Zachary Basu / Axios:

Over 400 former prosecutors say Trump would be indicted if he weren't president — More than 400 former federal prosecutors have signed onto a statement asserting that if the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) did not prohibit a sitting president from being indicted …

Discussion: Scripting News

Henry Rodgers / The Daily Caller:
Nadler Schedules Vote To Hold Barr In Contempt Of Congress

Discussion: Fox News

Eric Tucker / Associated Press: Ex-prosecutors: Trump would've been charged if not president

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
House Judiciary Committee to Vote Wednesday to Hold Barr in Contempt

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos and Jezebel

House Judiciary Dems / House Committee …:
Wednesday: House Judiciary to Markup Contempt Report for AG Barr

Discussion: Townhall, Axios, TheBlaze, The Last Refuge, POLITICUSUSA, The Gateway Pundit, Shakesville and New York Post

Alex Conant / FIREHOUSE Strategies:

BREAKING: New early state Democratic primary voter survey results — Key Findings: — The Biden Surge: We asked Democratic primary voters who they favored among the eight highest-profile Democrats who have already announced their candidacies. According to our survey …

Discussion: Breitbart, Florida Politics, Axios and Political Wire

Chris Cillizza / CNN:

What happens if Donald Trump refuses to admit he lost in 2020? … Recalling her mindset in advance of the 2018 midterms, Pelosi told the New York Times: … That might sound like exaggeration from Pelosi — an attempt to gin up her base in advance of the 2020 presidential election. It isn't.

Discussion: Washington Post, Fortune, Slate, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Fox News and Raw Story

Elizabeth Thomas / ABC News:
New effort launches to democratically elect the vice president in 2020

Discussion: Hot Air and Outside the Beltway

Gerrard Kaonga / Daily Express:

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to choose UNUSUAL name for baby that UNIFIES the US and UK — MEGHAN MARKLE and Prince Harry could be leaning towards a royal baby name that pays tribute to both US and UK history, according to royal expert Victoria Arbiter. — Meghan Markle is expected …

Brad Plumer / New York Times:

Civilization Is Accelerating Extinction and Altering the Natural World at a Pace ‘Unprecedented in Human History’ — WASHINGTON — Humans are transforming Earth's natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction …

Discussion: Gothamist, The Guardian, Commentary, Progress Pond, Splinter and Financial Times

Darryl Fears / Washington Post: One million species face extinction, U.N. panel says. And humans will suffer as a result.

Chris Joyner / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Georgia mayor under fire for alleged remarks about black job candidate — The mayor of Hoschton, a nearly all-white community 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, allegedly withheld a job candidate from consideration for city administrator because he was black, an AJC investigation has found.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Root, The Resurgent, Talking Points Memo, theGrio, Raw Story and Splinter

Phil Williams / WTVF-TV:

TN House Speaker's chief of staff admits past drug use, confirms text messages — NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada's chief of staff has admitted to using illegal drugs - including snorting cocaine in his legislative offices - in response to text messages obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

Discussion: Raw Story

Phil Williams / WTVF-TV: Speaker's chief of staff says he doesn't recall sending racist texts

Davis Richardson / Observer:

Mike Pompeo Praises Climate Change in the Arctic as ‘New Opportunities for Trade’ — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Finland to discuss the United States' commitment to the Arctic region. While much of the secretary's speech addressed …

Discussion: Politico, Reuters, VICE News and Pacific Standard

Michael R. Pompeo / US Department of State:
Rovaniemi, Finland — SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Ambassador.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

New York Times:

U.S. Officials Raise Alarm of Iranian Threat Targeting American Troops in Iraq — WASHINGTON — Senior American officials said on Monday that new threats by Iran against United States troops in Iraq were behind the sudden deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Persian Gulf.

Discussion: Task & Purpose, Slate and The Guardian

Susan E. Rice / New York Times:
The Real Trump Foreign Policy: Stoking the G.O.P. Base

Discussion: Washington Times, Washington Free Beacon and Raw Story

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

The FBI's Trump-Russia Investigation Was Formally Opened on False Pretenses — The State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos's claims — which were probably false anyway. — Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and American Greatness

Margot Cleveland / The Federalist:
Major Report Omission Shows Mueller Was Either Incompetent Or A Political Hack

Discussion: Daily Wire and Instapundit

Jon Gargis / MDJOnline.com:

New NRA president, Cobb native, aiming for higher membership, reclaiming government offices — Carolyn Meadows, an east Cobb resident and new president of the National Rifle Association. — Buy Now — Carolyn Meadows, an east Cobb native and new president of the National Rifle Association …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Media Matters for America, The Root, IJR, Shareblue Media and Raw Story

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Trump is trolling us again. Stop falling for it. — President Trump has a superpower. With just a few taps to the screen of his iPhone, he can transform his staunchest adversaries into . . . Donald Trump. — No one loves a good conspiracy theory as much as the man in the Oval Office.

Discussion: Fox News, Raw Story and Fox News Insider

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Claiming two years of his presidency were ‘stolen,’ Trump suggests he's owed overtime

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Breitbart, Daily Kos and ThinkProgress

Alexis Levinson / BuzzFeed News:

Republicans Think They Know How To Win Back Congress In 2020. Races Like This One Could Screw It Up. — STATEN ISLAND — “I didn't vote for you,” Kevin Smith told Rep. Max Rose, after flagging the freshman Democratic congressman down while walking his dog. “But I gotta give you credit — you worked your ass off.

Facebook:

Removing More Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From Russia — Today we removed multiple Pages, Groups and accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram. We found two separate, unconnected operations that originated in Russia and used similar tactics …

Discussion: Radio Free Europe/Radio … and CNN, more at Techmeme »

CNBC:

Chinese delegation will come to the US for trade talks after Trump tariff threat — KEY POINTS — A Chinese delegation will travel to the United States for trade talks this week after President Donald Trump's latest tariff threat, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Axios

CNBC:
Dow drops more than 450 points as China considers skipping trade talks after Trump threat

Discussion: Reason, CNN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Fortune and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Sink / Bloomberg:

Trump May Redefine Poverty, Cutting Americans From Welfare Rolls — OMB says in regulatory filing it may recalculate poverty level — Switch to so-called chained CPI would slow growth of poverty — The Trump administration may alter the way it determines the national poverty threshold …

Maxwell Strachan / HuffPost:

Ilhan Omar Won't Be Quiet — “Clearly, I am a nightmare ― because [Trump] can't stop really thinking about ways that he can continue to use my identity to marginalize our communities,” said the freshman congresswoman as she went back to her district in Minnesota for recess.

Gregory A. Smith / Pew Research Center:

U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say Trump favors the Israelis too much — In his more than two years as president, Donald Trump has taken significant steps to support Israel, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing the Jewish state's sovereignty over the Golan Heights region.

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Dan Friedman / Mother Jones:

Another Chinese American Trump Donor Tried to Sell Mar-a-Lago Access to Overseas Clients — In recent weeks, Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club has been at the center of intersecting scandals. There's the curious case of Yujing Zhang, the Chinese woman arrested for allegedly sneaking into the resort.

Discussion: Raw Story

U.S. Department of Justice:

Former FBI Linguist Arrested and Indicted on Obstruction Charges — ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Virginia man who previously served as a linguist for the FBI was arrested Saturday night on charges of obstructing a federal investigation and making multiple false statements to FBI officials.

Discussion: TheBlaze, Fox News and The Gateway Pundit

James Reston Jr / New York Times:

Trump's Other Impeachable Offense — As Nixon learned, Congress will not abide a president who defies its subpoenas. — Mr. Reston is the author of “The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews.” — On July 30, 1974, nine days before President Richard Nixon resigned …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Associated Press:

Red Sox manager Alex Cora won't visit White House — Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora will not attend the ceremony at the White House on Thursday honoring the 2018 World Series champions. — Cora cited the Trump administration's response to Hurricane Maria in his native Puerto Rico as the reason for his decision.

Discussion: BostonGlobe.com, Politico, Talking Points Memo, IJR, Shareblue Media and The Root

Anna Merlan / Splinter:

Far-Right News Site GotNews Has Filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Petition — The far-right news site GotNews filed a petition for federal Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 24, court records show. — The now-defunct site and its founder, Charles C. Johnson, were sued in federal court last year …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Bernie Sanders Decides to Play Rough This Time — The senator is playing to win, drawing sharp contrasts with his opponents far more quickly and aggressively than he did four years ago. — Gideon Resnick — In just the last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) unloaded a blistering attack on a leading Democratic think tank.

Discussion: Townhall, CNN and ABC News