memeorandum: Grassley Statement Regarding Intel Community Whistleblower (Chuck Grassley)

2:05 PM ET, October 1, 2019

Top Items:

Tense Relationship Between Barr and Giuliani Complicates Trump Impeachment Defense — The president's two highest-profile lawyers are struggling to get on the same page — WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr called President Trump in April with a question: What was Rudy Giuliani doing?

Discussion: Political Wire

Washington Post:

Attorney General Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016 — Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes …

David Remnick / New Yorker:

The Floodgates Open on Trump — Shortly after eight this morning, the President of the United States, making maximal use of his “executive time,” wielded his smartphone to issue a legal threat against the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. It is worth reading the missive from @realDonaldTrump in full:

Discussion: Vox, Althouse, Washington Post, IJR, Daily Kos, The Guardian, New York Times and The Atlantic

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Barr's enabling of Trump's corruption just got more dangerous

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Power Line and Raw Story

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:
Trump may have lied to Mueller, House Democrats say

Discussion: Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, NBC News, Washington Times, Axios, The Moderate Voice, Viking Pundit, The Root, Law & Crime and Raw Story

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

Pompeo says State Dept. officials won't show up for scheduled impeachment depositions this week — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired a broadside at House Democrats on Tuesday, saying State Department officials scheduled to appear this week before committees conducting the impeachment inquiry …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Townhall, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Breitbart, Lawfare, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Daily Kos and NPR

Associated Press:
The Latest: Pompeo says impeachment depositions not feasible

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:
House Subpoenas Giuliani, Trump's Lawyer, for Ukraine Records

Discussion: The Hill, U.S. House of …, Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly, HuffPost, Mediaite, The Resurgent, CNN, Common Dreams and Political Wire

Casey Newton / The Verge:

In leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook against critics and the US government — In two hours of leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook employees against critics, competitors, and the US government. — July should have been a relief for Facebook.

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
Zuckerberg talks Warren's “existential” breakup threat in leaked audio

Discussion: Politico, KTLA and One America News Network

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Grassley breaks with Trump over protecting whistleblower — As President Donald Trump and his allies attack the whistleblower that kicked off the House's impeachment inquiry, the still unidentified person gained a powerful ally on Tuesday: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Discussion: Breitbart and Political Wire

Chuck Grassley:
Grassley Statement Regarding Intel Community Whistleblower

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios and HuffPost

Bill Hutchinson / ABC News:

Amber Guyger convicted of murder in wrong-apartment killing of innocent man — A Texas jury rejected former Dallas police officer Amber Guyer's self-defense claims and convicted her on Tuesday of murder in the fatal 2018 shooting of an innocent man eating ice cream in his own home after mistaking his apartment for her own.

Discussion: NBC News, RedState, Hot Air and Raw Story

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:

Booker raised over $6 million in third quarter thanks to late surge — The New Jersey senator told supporters he had to raise $1.7 million in the final days of September or he would drop out of the 2020 race. — Sen. Cory Booker. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Discussion: Political Wire, ABC News and Mediaite

Julie Bykowicz / Wall Street Journal:
Bernie Sanders's Campaign Gets Summer Funding Boost

Discussion: Politico, Splinter and Political Wire

Washington Post:
Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $25.3 million in third quarter, campaign says

Discussion: National Review, Breitbart, David Harris Jr, Burlington Free Press and Politico

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:
Pete Buttigieg Pitches Himself to Moderates as the Biden Alternative

Discussion: Hot Air and FiveThirtyEight

Amanda Hess / New York Times:

This Is the Moment Rachel Maddow Has Been Waiting For — How the MSNBC host staked her show on Trump — and won the largest and most obsessive audience of her career. — Rachel Maddow was trying to get to work. She only had to get from the glass door of her doctor's office …

Washington Post:

Judge to DOJ: Decide on charging Andrew McCabe by Nov. 15, or face release of FBI records — A veteran federal judge on Monday warned U.S. prosecutors either to charge former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe or to drop their investigation into whether he lied to investigators …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Intelligence Inspector General to GOP: You Know Nothing of My Work — Last Thursday, Sean Davis of the conservative news site The Federalist broke an explosive revelation. The Intelligence Community had secretly changed a requirement in its whistle-blower statute to allow whistle-blowers …

Discussion: Fox News, The Federalist, Rolling Stone and Patterico's Pontifications

Jane C. Timm / NBC News:
Fact check: Were whistleblower rules changed before Ukraine complaint?

Discussion: The Federalist, American Greatness, HuffPost, FactCheck.org, The Resurgent, Raw Story and Axios

David Enrich / New York Times:

Me and My Whistleblower — Deutsche Bank. North Korea. The Intelligence Committee's investigation of the president. Again and again, one man has taken his trove of secret documents — and uncanny nose for scandal — to the center of the news. — One sunny Wednesday in February …

Discussion: Raw Story and The FADER

John Harwood / CNBC:

GOP defenses for Trump's Ukraine call quickly collapse under scrutiny — Trump, his aides and select allies in Congress have feverishly sought to redirect a whistleblower's complaints toward Democratic adversaries. — Yet even cursory scrutiny of evidence that has emerged so far knocks …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Elizabeth Drew / New York Times:
How to Win Republican Support for Impeachment

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Axios

WilmerHale:

Robert S. Mueller III and Other Special Counsel's Office Members Rejoin WilmerHale — Related Solutions — WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Robert S. Mueller III is rejoining the firm as a partner after serving as special counsel for the US Department of Justice.

Alexi McCammond / Axios:

The GOP's Texas problem — The retirement of six House Republicans from Texas at the end of this term shows their pessimism about winning back the House majority in 2020, GOP strategists tell Axios — and foreshadows bigger Republican fears in the nation's second most populous state.

Discussion: Shareblue Media, The Texas Tribune, Off the Kuff and Raw Story

Jim Morrill / The Charlotte Observer:

Ex-GOP Chair Hayes could testify against others in scheme: ‘They should be worried.’ — Under a deal with federal prosecutors, North Carolina's former state Republican chairman could testify against other defendants in the state's largest-ever case of political bribery.

Miami Herald:

‘He conned us from day one’: Giuliani's Ukraine ally leaves trail of South Florida debts — Over the summer, Dianne and Michael Pues got an ominous phone call from the business partner of a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur who owes the couple more than $500,000 over a movie deal gone bad.

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story and BuzzFeed News

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Impeachment Support Up Slightly But Trump Job Rating Steady — Most say request for investigation of political foe is inappropriate — West Long Branch, NJ - President Donald Trump's approval rating has remained steady in the wake of an official impeachment inquiry launched last week …

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, New York Times, Political Wire and CNN

Kristina Cahill / ISM:

Institute for Supply Management Home — E-mail: kcahill@instituteforsupplymanagement.or g — September 2019 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® — New Orders, Production, and Employment Contracting — Supplier Deliveries Slowing at a Slower Rate; Backlog Contracting

Discussion: Mother Jones

Charles Bethea / New Yorker:

Mark Meadows and the Undisclosed Dinosaur Property — A fight among fossil hunters, a dubious documentary, and the conservative congressman from North Carolina. — Three years ago, the North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows sold a hundred-and-thirty-four-acre property in Dinosaur, Colorado.

Discussion: Politico and Raw Story

Steve Liesman / CNBC:

Trump's approval rating drops to low, but Americans still oppose impeachment, survey finds — The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey found 47% opposing impeachment hearings and 44% approving. The difference is within the poll's 3.5% margin of error.

Discussion: Mediaite

Asma Khalid / NPR:

How White Liberals Became Woke, Radically Changing Their Outlook On Race — Jeromy Brown, a 46-year-old teacher in Iowa, considers President Trump a white supremacist. — “If the shoe fits, then say it, and the shoe fits him,” Brown said, while waiting in a photo line at an Elizabeth Warren rally in August.

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

There's another whistleblower complaint. It's about Trump's tax returns. — Hey, have you heard about this whistleblower complaint? — An unnamed civil servant is alleging serious interference in government business. If the allegations are true, they could be a game-changer.

Discussion: Reason, Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media and Political Wire

Kelsey Jukam / courthousenews.com:

Devin Nunes Sues Reporter, Hearst for Article About Family's Iowa Dairy — (CN) - California Representative Devin Nunes asked a federal court in Iowa Monday to award him $75 million in damages in a defamation and common law conspiracy suit against reporter Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines.

Discussion: Law & Crime, more at Mediagazer »

Yahoo News:

Trump tweeted ‘billions of dollars’ would be saved on military contracts. Then the Pentagon fired the official doing that. — In December 2016, just a few weeks before moving into the White House, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that once he was in office, “billions of dollars …

Sam Brodey / The Daily Beast:

Trump's Favorite Democrat Will Not Budge on Impeachment — “It is not something to be taken lightly. You're disenfranchising voters, you're removing an executive from office,” Van Drew said. — In a U.S. Capitol hallway on the day that Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry …

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios and Vox

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Trump cranks up grievance machine — Donald Trump's campaign aides expected months ago that Democrats would try to impeach the president — and he needed a way to exploit it. — So this summer, Trump 2020 officials spliced news clips of Democrats discussing impeachment into a 90-second video montage …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Associated Press, Raw Story, LifeZette and Daily Kos

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Government-by-conspiracy-theory rides again — It's hard to overstate the extent to which President Trump's time in politics has been defined by conservative media broadly and Fox News specifically. — For years before his decision to seek the presidency in 2015, he was a regular, promoted guest on “Fox & Friends.”

Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Voter registration surges in Georgia ahead of 2020 elections — New voters have registered in droves in Georgia since last year's midterms, expanding the electorate ahead of the 2020 presidential election year when the state is expected to be a key political battleground.