memeorandum: Roger Stone associate agrees to testify before Mueller grand jury (Katelyn Polantz/CNN)

5:35 PM ET, May 29, 2019

Top Items:

As he exits, Mueller suggests only Congress can ‘formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing’ — Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III reiterated Wednesday that his office could not clear President Trump of obstructing justice, asserting in his first public remarks about his investigation …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, Breitbart, Politico, Power Line, POLITICUSUSA, Associated Press, Splinter, CANNONFIRE, One America News Network, Axios, Raw Story and New York Post

David Frum / The Atlantic:

What the Mueller Report Actually Said — Robert Mueller has advised Americans to go back and actually read his report if we want to understand what happened in 2016. “We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself,” he said on Wednesday morning, speaking publicly for the first time since his appointment.

Discussion: Raw Story and Quartz

Sean Davis / The Federalist:

Mueller Just Proved His Entire Operation Was A Political Hit Job That Trampled The Rule Of Law — At a hastily-arranged Wednesday press conference, Special Counsel Robert Mueller proved that he was never interested in justice or the rule of law. — If there were any doubts …

Discussion: Vox, U.S. Department of Justice, Big League Politics and The Guardian

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Mueller: Trump Is Not Not a Criminal — Famously taciturn prosecutor Robert Mueller decided to address the public to make it very clear that he did not exonerate President Trump of committing obstruction of justice. “If we had confidence that the president did not commit a crime we would have said so,” he said.

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:

Robert Mueller Was Telling Nancy Pelosi to Begin Impeachment Proceedings — Special counsel Robert Mueller issued a final statement on Wednesday before resigning from the Department of Justice, which clearly appeared aimed at one person: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Vox, Common Dreams and The Week

Pelosi Press / Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi Statement on Special Counsel Mueller's Press Statement Reiterating the President's Obstruction — San Francisco - Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after Special Counsel Mueller made a press statement reiterating the extent of Russian efforts to disrupt our elections …

Discussion: Slate, IJR, Contemptor, Splinter, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and The Week

Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:

Robert Mueller to Make Statement on Russia Investigation — WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, will speak about the Russia investigation at 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning, his first public comments since he took over the inquiry two years ago, the Justice Department announced.

Discussion: Fox News, Political Wire, Media Matters for America, Washington Press, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, Vanity Fair, Commentary, Liberty Unyielding, VICE News, Althouse and The Week

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Roger Stone associate agrees to testify before Mueller grand jury — Washington (CNN)An associate of Roger Stone has agreed to testify to special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury on Friday morning, his attorney and a Mueller prosecutor said in a court hearing before a federal judge.

Discussion: Fox News and Law & Crime

CNN:

Mueller: ‘If we had confidence the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so’ — Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a rare and remarkable public statement Wednesday that charging President Donald Trump was not an option his office could consider.

Discussion: Rolling Stone, IJR, KTLA, Media Matters for America, KFOR-TV, The Colorado Sun, Sara A. Carter and The Root

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
Full transcript: Robert Mueller's statement on the Russia investigation

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, Axios, Breitbart, Politico and The Week

Alexander Mallin / ABC News:
Robert Mueller breaks silence, does not want to testify, says charging Trump ‘not an option’

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Townhall, The Bulwark, The Gateway Pundit, Vox, BuzzFeed News, twitchy.com, Washington Press, FRONTLINE, FiveThirtyEight, Raw Story, Conservative News Today and The Week

Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Chris Christie: Mueller ‘contradicts’ Barr's summary of his findings

Discussion: Political Wire, Breitbart and JONATHAN TURLEY

New York Times:
Full Transcript of Mueller's Statement on Russia Investigation

Discussion: USA Today, The Moderate Voice, Reason, Washington Monthly, The Gateway Pundit, Slate, Daily Wire, Associated Press and Spectator USA

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Mueller says he couldn't charge Trump, tosses the question to Congress

Discussion: Breitbart, POLITICUSUSA and Axios

Jonathan Allen / NBC News: Mueller turns up the heat on impeachment

Andrew Clark / Indianapolis Star:
Pete Buttigieg on Mueller statement: ‘As close to an impeachment referral as you could get’

Discussion: Townhall, BuzzFeed News, The Atlantic and The Daily Caller

Allan Smith / NBC News:
Robert Mueller to make public statement about Russia probe on Wednesday

Discussion: BuzzFeed News, Washington Post, The Week and Politico

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Robert Mueller should testify before Congress

Discussion: Conservative Review, NPR, Mother Jones and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Pelosi on Trump investigation options: ‘Nothing is off the table’

Discussion: New Republic, The Federalist, Townhall and Common Dreams

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Mueller stirs up Democratic impeachment agitation

Discussion: Washington Post, Mad Dog PAC and The Atlantic

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:

Pelosi says altered videos show Facebook leaders were ‘willing enablers’ of Russian election interference — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that Facebook's refusal to take down an altered video of her shows that the company's leaders were active contributors to online disinformation and …

Discussion: Daily Wire and ThinkProgress

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Worry About Facebook. Rip Your Hair Out in Screaming Terror About Fox News. — Novel forms of digital misinformation still pale in comparison with Fox News' full-time hall of mirrors. — At the risk of losing street cred as a tough-as-nails tech pundit, I'll confess that I couldn't muster …

Discussion: Lawfare, VICE, Techdirt and The Verge

Marisa Lagos / KQED:
Nancy Pelosi: Doctored Videos Show Facebook ‘Willing Enablers’ of Russians in 2016

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios, Politico, New York Times, Political Wire, Big League Politics, Mashable and Mediaite

Zach Montellaro / Politico:

DNC makes it more difficult to qualify for 3rd debate — ABC News, in partnership with Univision, will host the third Democratic presidential debate in September, the Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday, saying it was raising both the polling and fundraising bars for candidates to qualify.

Discussion: CBS News, Associated Press, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Week and Splinter

BuzzFeed News:
The New Presidential Debate Rules Immediately Have Some Democrats Frustrated With The DNC

Discussion: New York Times and CNN

Alex Seitz-Wald / NBC News:
DNC to raise qualifying threshold for third presidential debate

Discussion: Shakesville

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:

McConnell Hasn't Reversed Himself — The Washington Post joins a host of media outlets this morning in contending that Mitch McConnell has “reversed” his position on considering Supreme Court appointments in presidential election years. McConnell said last night that he would “fill” any Supreme Court vacancy that arose next year.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Instapundit and twitchy.com

Washington Post:
McConnell says he would help Trump fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 — after blocking Obama in 2016

Discussion: Daily Wire, WPSD Local 6WPSD Local 6, Political Wire, FRONTLINE, Vox and Outside the Beltway

VICE:

Twitter Has Started Researching Whether White Supremacists Belong on Twitter — “Is it the right approach to deplatform these individuals? Is the right approach to try and engage with these individuals? How should we be thinking about this? What actually works?”

Discussion: The Verge and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:

Andrew Miller, an aide to Roger Stone, will testify before Mueller grand jury after months-long subpoena fight — Andrew Miller, a former aide to Roger Stone, will testify Friday before the grand jury used by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his investigation of Russian interference …

Associated Press:
Ex-Roger Stone aide agrees to testify before grand jury

Discussion: Politico

Eric W. Dolan / Raw Story:

‘Is it that bad?’ Fox Business host stunned as Napolitano explains Mueller has evidence Trump committed a crime — Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano. (Screenshot) — Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller had indicated …

Sheena McKenzie / CNN:

Boris Johnson, favorite to be Britain's next PM, to face court for alleged Brexit lies — London (CNN)The leading candidate to succeed Theresa May as British Prime Minister has been ordered to appear in court to face allegations he lied to the public during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.

Discussion: The Week

BBC:
Brexit: Boris Johnson ordered to appear in court over £350m claim

Discussion: Political Wire and Instapundit

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Planned Parenthood's false stat: ‘Thousands’ of women died every year before Roe — “We face a real situation where Roe could be overturned. And we know what will happen, which is that women will die. Thousands of women died every year pre-Roe.” — “Before Roe v. Wade …

Discussion: RedState, Townhall, IJR, LifeNews.com, National Review, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Students For Life, Washington Free Beacon, Althouse and Fox News

Greg P. / twitchy.com:

CRINGE: Joe Biden gets handsy with young girl, says 'I'll bet you're as bright as you are good-looking' — Just to update you on this story we told you about last night, we now have video of 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden getting handsy with a young girl at an AFT town hall and telling her …

Discussion: Summit News, YouTube, Glamour, Dan Bongino and Althouse

Astead W. Herndon / New York Times:

Can Jaime Harrison End the Democrats' Drought in South Carolina? — The Times talked to Mr. Harrison, the first black chairman of the state's Democratic Party, about his bid to unseat Senator Lindsey Graham. — Let's begin with the obvious: No Democrat has won a statewide race in South Carolina since 2006.

Discussion: Vox and Shakesville

The Daily Beast:

The Future of NRATV Is in Doubt After Ad Agency Severs Ties to Gun Group — Ackerman McQueen, which operates the network, formally moved to end its relationship with the NRA on Wednesday—the latest in a nasty legal drama. — NRATV's future is in jeopardy.

Discussion: Mediaite

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Kellyanne Conway dismisses Hatch Act violation: ‘Let me know when the jail sentence starts’ — White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday scoffed at a government office's findings that she violated a decades-old law barring officials from weighing in on elections in their government capacity …

Discussion: Shareblue Media

Amanda Mull / The Atlantic:

There Are Two Types of Airport People — It's not hard to spot people about to miss a flight. They're weaving between on-time travelers at a speed somewhere between a power walk and a sprint, or they're elbow-dancing their way to the front of the TSA line to plead their case for immediate screening.