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CIA’s top lawyer made ‘criminal referral’ on whistleblower’s complaint about Trump conduct

CIA’s top lawyer made ‘criminal referral’ on whistleblower’s complaint about Trump conduct

NBC News reports: Weeks before the whistleblower’s complaint became public, the CIA’s top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower’s allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The move by the CIA’s general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more…

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Trump’s impeachment polling is historically unprecedented

Trump’s impeachment polling is historically unprecedented

Harry Enten writes: The poll numbers are in on impeachment, and it’s not good news for President Donald Trump. A clear plurality of Americans approve of the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump, and they are split on whether they want to impeach and remove him from office. Americans are more eager to impeach Trump now than they were at similar points in the impeachment sagas of Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Impeachment actions usually start off as being unpopular with…

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Treasury inspector general to review handling of Trump’s tax returns

Treasury inspector general to review handling of Trump’s tax returns

The New York Times reports: The Treasury Department’s inspector general is investigating how the department handled a congressional request for President Trump’s tax returns, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to turn over. The inquiry comes amid new concerns about political interference in the handling of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, which — like those of all presidents — are subjected to a mandatory audit. An Internal Revenue Service whistle-blower filed a complaint over the summer claiming that senior Treasury…

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Why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should resign

Why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should resign

Daniel W. Drezner writes: Mike Pompeo came into the secretary of state position with a relatively simple assignment: be better than the most incompetent secretary of state in history. Rex Tillerson tried to ingratiate himself with President Trump and failed. In the process, he alienated every other stakeholder relevant to his job: Congress, the Foreign Service, the foreign diplomatic corps, even folks such as me. He had to go. There was an argument that Pompeo was stepping into a situation…

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Rory Stewart leaves Tory party to run for London mayor

Rory Stewart leaves Tory party to run for London mayor

The Guardian reports: The former Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart has resigned from the party, and announced plans to run for mayor of London as an independent. Stewart, who was among 21 Tories who lost the whip for rebelling over a no-deal Brexit, announced in a tweet on Friday that he would stand down as an MP. He later told the Evening Standard newspaper he was sick of the “madhouse of mutual insults in the Gothic shouting chamber of Westminster”….

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Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump’s call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump’s call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior

Judge Andrew Napolitano, a political commentator on Fox News, writes: The whistleblower’s revelation caused the White House to release a near-verbatim summary of the conversation between the two presidents. By releasing it, Trump has admitted to its accuracy. In it, Trump asked Zelensky for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, who at this writing is Trump’s likely Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential election. Trump also admits to holding up $391 million in aid to Ukraine – $250 million…

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As Trump solicits election support from China, FEC chair issues a reminder that this is illegal

As Trump solicits election support from China, FEC chair issues a reminder that this is illegal

CNBC reports: The head of the Federal Election Commission subtweeted President Donald Trump on Thursday after the president called on China to investigate his potential 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. In a post on Twitter, chair Ellen Weintraub resurfaced a June memorandum stating that it is illegal for anyone running for public office to solicit help from a foreign national. Is this thing on? 🎙 https://t.co/K6phZRex8k — Ellen L Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) October 3, 2019 Weintraub had originally…

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IRS whistleblower said to report Treasury political appointee might have tried to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence

IRS whistleblower said to report Treasury political appointee might have tried to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence

The Washington Post reports: An Internal Revenue Service official has filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president or vice president’s tax returns, according to multiple people familiar with the document. Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower’s complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on…

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Giuliani was warned that Ukrainian claims of Bidens’ misconduct were not credible, Trump’s ex-envoy tells lawmakers

Giuliani was warned that Ukrainian claims of Bidens’ misconduct were not credible, Trump’s ex-envoy tells lawmakers

The Washington Post reports: The former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators on Thursday that he warned President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures about former vice president Joe Biden and his son, according to two people familiar with his testimony. Kurt Volker, who resigned last week after being named in a whistleblower complaint that sparked the House impeachment inquiry of Trump, said he tried to caution Giuliani…

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Republican senators echoed Biden in urging Ukrainian president to reform prosecutor general’s office

Republican senators echoed Biden in urging Ukrainian president to reform prosecutor general’s office

CNN reports: A newly unearthed letter from 2016 shows that Republican senators pushed for reforms to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office and judiciary, echoing calls then-Vice President Joe Biden made at the time. CNN’s KFile found a February 2016 bipartisan letter signed by several Republican senators that urged then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to “press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor General’s office and judiciary.” The letter shows that addressing corruption in Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office had bipartisan support in the…

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Demagogues thrive by whipping up our fury. Here’s how to thwart them

Demagogues thrive by whipping up our fury. Here’s how to thwart them

George Monbiot writes: In every age there have been political hucksters using aggression, lies and outrage to drown out reasoned argument. But not since the 1930s have so many succeeded. Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Scott Morrison, Rodrigo Duterte, Nicolás Maduro, Viktor Orbán and many others have discovered that the digital age offers rich pickings. The anger and misunderstanding that social media generates, exacerbated by troll factories, bots and covertly funded political advertising, spill into real life….

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Political operatives are faking voter outrage with millions of made-up comments to benefit the rich and powerful

Political operatives are faking voter outrage with millions of made-up comments to benefit the rich and powerful

BuzzFeed reports: In the spring of 2017, a virtual war was raging over the future of the internet, much of it through comments on the website of the Federal Communications Commission — the government agency responsible for regulating the broadband industry. Reeves wasn’t the only ghost to get sucked in from beyond the grave to do battle on behalf of giant telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Comcast. At issue was a rule from the Obama era known as “net…

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The medieval mobster in the White House (who asserts ‘absolute power’) wanted to maim and murder immigrants

The medieval mobster in the White House (who asserts ‘absolute power’) wanted to maim and murder immigrants

The New York Times reports: The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico — by noon the next day. The advisers feared the president’s edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic…

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Warren gets ‘dramatic shift’ in support from black voters

Warren gets ‘dramatic shift’ in support from black voters

Politico reports: One element of Elizabeth Warren’s surge in the polls is likely to strike fear in her top Democratic rivals — her rising support among African-Americans. After struggling to win over black voters in the early stages of the primary, the Massachusetts senator appears to be gaining ground with a demographic that will play a pivotal role in determining the nomination. A Quinnipiac University national poll last week showed Warren winning 19 percent of the African-American vote — a…

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