The Trump era presents attorneys with opportunities for great distinction — and great shame. My article, “All the President’s Lawyers,” appears in the current issue of the ABA’s Litigation Journal. Here’s the link: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/publications/litigation_journal/2018-19/fall/all-presidents-lawyers/

[NOTE: On Feb 13, 2019, this post appeared at Dan Rather’s News & Guts.]

When the president dangles a pardon under the nose of a cooperating witness in a federal probe, incentives change: Lying yields potential rewards rather than draconian penalties. Truth becomes elusive. Justice is obstructed and the rule of law loses.

That principle could have framed last week’s lead Trump-Russia story. Instead, another Trump era made-for-TV spectacle flooded the airwaves. But buried in acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker’s contentious hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was an item about pardons. A related development in the case against Paul Manafort illustrates the problem.

The Whitaker Nugget

During Whitaker’s four hours of actual questioning, he avoided substantive answers on most topics. His demeanor became the story. But at the two-hour and forty-eight-minute mark, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) asked him about discussions of pardons for Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen. Whitaker responded broadly:

“Congressman, as I have been acting attorney general, I have not been involved in any discussions of any pardons even and including the ones you’re discussing.”

Ninety minutes later, the day’s final questioner, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) asked:

Q: Did you ever create, direct the creation, see, or become aware of the existence of any documents relating to pardons of any individual?

Whitaker paused before answering: “I’m aware of documents relating to pardoning of individuals, yes.”

An inadvertent cliffhanger that few in the media noticed: Whitaker said he’d had no discussions with anyone about pardons, but he’s aware of documents relating to them. Alas, time expired. No follow-up questions. Hearing over.

The Manafort Connection

As the Whitaker show played out, another pardon story emerged in the case against Paul Manafort, who stands accused of lying to special counsel Robert Mueller after signing his plea agreement. On Aug. 22, 2018, Trump told a Fox News reporter that he would consider pardoning Manafort. As recently as Nov. 28, he said that a pardon for Manafort was not “off the table.”

During a Feb. 4 hearing, Andrew Weissmann, an attorney on Mueller’s team, outlined Manafort’s two motives for lying. The transcript redacts the first one entirely. As for the second, Weissmann said that Manafort could have been trying “to at least augment his chances for a pardon.”

One of Manafort’s alleged lies relates to his Aug. 2, 2016 meeting with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian dual citizen whom the FBI assesses as having ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik was Manafort’s liaison to sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a Putin confidant. (On Jan. 16, 2019, Senate Republicans failed to stop Trump from lifting sanctions on Deripaska’s companies.)

Weismann emphasized that the Aug. 2 meeting “goes very much to the heart of what the Special Counsel’s office is investigating.” The Trump-Russia Timeline offers hints as to why. Here’s a sample of relevant entries:

July 11, 2015: A month after Trump announces his candidacy, he appears at a Las Vegas town hall and answers question from the audience. Russian national Maria Butina gets to a microphone and asks about his policy toward Russia.

“I don’t think you’d need the sanctions,” Trump answers, referring to crippling economic sanctions that the US, the European Union, and a host of other countries and international organizations imposed against Russia after its 2014 intervention in Ukraine.

It turns out that Butina is a Russian agent.  In 2018, she pleads guilty to conspiring with a Russian government official to establish “unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over US politics… for the benefit of the Russian Federation.” Among other vehicles, she uses the NRA to reach Republican Party leaders.

Mar. 29, 2016: Although Manafort is broke and deeply in debt, he goes to work on the Trump campaign for no pay. 

Apr. 11, 2016: Manafort asks Kilimnik how they can use Manafort’s new position on the campaign “to get whole.” During his tenure, Manafort discusses with Kilimnik a “peace plan” for Ukraine, and he transfers US polling data to Kilimnik.

June 9, 2016: Manafort attends the Trump Tower meeting with Russians connected to Putin’s government. They claim to have “dirt” on Clinton.

July 7, 2016:In an email to Kilimnik, Manafort offers to give Deripaska “private briefings” on the Trump campaign.

July 14, 2016: The Trump campaign successfully resists a proposed GOP platform plank that would strengthen US support of Ukraine against Russia.

July 22, 2016: On the eve of the Democratic convention, WikiLeaks releases nearly 20,000 emails that the Russians had stolen from the Democratic National Committee months earlier.

July 24, 2016: On national television, Manafort denies any link between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Which takes us to Aug. 2, 2016:Manafort meets with Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Club in Manhattan. What happened there? According to Mueller, Manafort is lying about it, perhaps to augment his chances for a pardon. That’s not how America’s justice system is supposed to work.

UPDATE: Feb. 13, 2019: The judge agreed with Mueller: Manafort “intentionally made multiple false statements to the FBI, the OSC, and the grand jury concerning matters that were materials to the investigation: his interactions and communications with [Konstantin] Kilimnik.”

Here’s a complete list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

1995: Trump in Moscow Seeking Development Opportunities

FEBRUARY 2006: Trump’s Children Visit Moscow; Discuss Possible Trump Tower Deal (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 25, 2015: Cohen Sends Trump Tower-Moscow Drawings to Sater

SEPT. 29, 2015: Trump Tower-Moscow Talks Proceed

OCT. 5, 2015: Cohen Sends Draft Letter of Intent Re: Trump Tower-Moscow

OCT. 9, 2015: Sater Sends Cohen Potential Trump Tower-Moscow Site Info

NOV. 3, 2015: Sater and Cohen Pursue Trump Tower-Moscow and Getting Trump Elected President (revision of previous entry)

DEC. 1, 2015: Sater Asks Cohen for Copy of Passport for Russian Visa

DEC. 17, 2015: Putin Praises Trump; Cohen to Sater: ‘Now is the Time’

DEC. 19, 2015: Sater and Cohen Discuss Trip to Russia for Trump Tower-Moscow Financing Discussion

DEC. 21, 2015: Cohen Wants Copy of Trump Passport

DEC. 29-31, 2015: Cohen and Sater Argue Over Delay in Solidifying Trump Tower-Moscow Deal

JAN. 25, 2016: Russian Bank Invites Cohen to Moscow

JUNE 13, 2016: Sater Sends Cohen Visa Application to Attend Russian Economic Forum

JAN. 28, 2019: Cohen to Testify Privately Before House (revision of previous entry)

FEB. 4, 2019: Manafort’s Alleged Lies Go ‘To The Heart’ of Mueller’s Investigation; Judge Postpones Sentencing Date

FEB. 4, 2019: Prosecutors Subpoena Trump Inauguration Committee

FEB. 5, 2019: DHS and DOJ: Foreign Governments and Agents Had ‘No Material Impact’ on Midterm Election

FEB. 5, 2019: Erickson Indicted for Fraud

FEB. 6, 2019: House Releases Witness Transcripts to DOJ, Including Mueller

FEB. 7, 2019: Trump Tweets About Schiff, ‘Witch Hunt’, ‘PRESIDENTIAL HARRASSMENT’ 

FEB. 7, 2019: Corsi Sues Stone for Defamation

FEB. 8, 2019: Trump Tweets ‘No Collusion’, Attacks Schiff, ‘GIANT AND ILLEGAL HOAX’ 

FEB. 8, 2019: Whitaker Testifies Before Congress

FEB. 9, 2019: Trump Tweets About House Judiciary Committee; Retweets Hannity and Others on Schiff, Simpson, Senate Investigation, Clinton, Russia Investigation 

FEB. 10, 2019: Trump Tweets That Burr Concluded ‘NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA

[NOTE: On Feb 5,, 2019, this post appeared at Dan Rather’s News & Guts.]

Walk into a room full of people and turn off the lights. It will get their attention. If hackers shut off electricity to parts of the United States, perhaps the personal impact of Russia’s threat to the nation’s security will become apparent. Maybe it will also generate a closer look at Donald Trump’s responses to that threat. According to the US intelligence community’s annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment,” we’re approaching that moment.

Last week, America’s intelligence leaders informed Congress that Russia “is now staging cyber attack assets to allow it to disrupt or damage US civilian and military infrastructure during a crisis….” Russia has the ability to disrupt an American electrical distribution network “for at least a few hours” and is “mapping our critical infrastructure with the long-term goal of being able to cause substantial damage.”

Restoring a power grid is challenging. When the lights go out on democracy, restoring power to the people is a more daunting task. Here’s the report’s opening line about Russia:

“We assess that Russia poses a cyber espionage, influence, and attack threat to the United States and our allies.” (Emphasis in original)

Testifying before Congress, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned:  “[T]he Kremlin is stepping up its campaign to divide Western political and security institutions and undermine the post-WWII international order. We expect Russia will continue to wage its information war against democracies and to use social media to attempt to divide our societies.”

The next day, Trump moved the spotlight away from the report’s discussion of Russia by contradicting his intelligence leaders on Iran and North Korea — and chiding them in a tweet: “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school.”

It’s a familiar pattern, as the Trump-Russia Timeline reveals:

#1: AUG. 17, 2016

Trump receives his first national security briefing from senior FBI officials who warn that foreign adversaries, including Russia, will probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign.

Trump’s response: At the “Commander-in-Chief” forum on NBC, he praises Putin. (SEPT. 7)As the Trump campaign racks up more than 80 contacts with Russia before the election, Trump and his advisers deny repeatedly that there are any.

#2: OCT. 7, 2016

The intelligence community publishes its statement that Russia is interfering with the election.

Trump’s response: At the third presidential debate, he says, “[Hillary Clinton] has no idea whether it is Russia, China, or anybody else… Our country has no idea.” (OCT. 19)

#3: DEC. 9, 2016

The Washington Post reports the CIA’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump win.

Trump’s response: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” (DEC. 9) “They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace. I mean, they have no idea.” (DEC. 11)

#4: JAN. 6, 2017

The US intelligence community issues the public version of its report that Putin ordered the influence campaign promoting Trump’s candidacy.

Trump’s response: “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.” (JAN. 11) Days after the inauguration, the Trump administration considers an executive order unilaterally lifting Russian sanctions.

#5: JAN. 10, 2018

A Senate report details Putin’s ongoing worldwide attacks on democracy and emphasizes the need to counter Russia’s threat.

Trump’s response: He tells The Wall Street Journal that the Russia investigation is a hoax. (JAN. 11)

#6: MAR. 15, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security issues an alert: Russia has hacked into US utilities’ control rooms.

Trump’s response: He congratulates Vladimir Putin on winning re-election, ignoring the “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” warning from his national security advisers. (MAR. 20)

#7: JUL. 13, 2018

DNI Coats says Russian cyberattack warning lights are “blinking red.”

Trump’s response: When asked if Russia is still targeting the US, he says, “No.” (JULY 18)

#7: AUG. 2, 2018

At the White House daily press conference, DNI Coats and FBI Director Christopher Wray warn about ongoing Russian election interference in the midterms.

Trump’s response: At a rally that evening, he decries the “Russian hoax.” For the rest of the year and into 2019, the Trump administration drags its feet on implementing new sanctions against Russia.

#8: DEC. 17, 2018

A report for the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that Russia is still using social media to help Trump by targeting special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Trump’s response:Tweets about the “Russian Witch Hunt” and “Hoax.” (DEC. 18)

Last week, Mueller said that non-public government discovery produced in the case against a Russian troll farm and 13 Russian nationals reappeared in a social media disinformation campaign against his investigation. As Putin’s global attacks continue, waiting for the lights to go out is an increasingly perilous path.

Here’s a complete list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

EARLY 2016–MARCH 2016: Trump Seeks Loan From Deutsch Bank; Bank Refuses

JUNE 6-7, 2016: Don Jr.’s Phone Calls With Emin Agalarov (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 5, 2018: Twitter Removes 3,483 Russian Troll Accounts

OCT. 30, 2018: Stolen Documents Used to Attack Mueller’s Case Against IRA and Prigozhin

PRIOR TO NOV. 6, 2018: Twitter Removes More Russian Troll Accounts

NOV. 29-30, 2018: Trump Cancels G-20 Meeting with Putin; Kremlin Pushes Back; Trump Meets with Putin After All (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 28, 2019: Sens. Blumenthal and Grassley Introduce Bill Requiring Public Report From Mueller

JAN. 28, 2019: Cohen To Testify Privately Before House

JAN. 28, 2019: Sanders Refuses to Rule Out Pardon For Stone

JAN. 29-30, 2019: US Intelligence Community Heads Warn: Russian Efforts Include Cyber Attacks, Crippling Infrastructure, Dividing Americans, and Interfering With US Elections; Trump Changes Subject

JAN. 30, 2019: Mueller: Disinformation Campaign Targeted Russia Investigation; Additional Uncharged Individuals Engaging in Unlawful Activities

JAN. 31, 2019: Trump Tweets About Ohr, ‘Witch Hunt’

JAN. 31, 2019: Trump to NYT: ‘I Like Roger’ Who Has Been Treated ‘Very Badly’; ‘We’ll Do Something on it at the Right Time’; Says He Had No Conversations With Stone About WikiLeaks 

JAN. 31, 2019: Trump to NYT: Business in Russia During Campaign

JAN. 31, 2019: Trump to NYT: Rosenstein Says He’s Not a Mueller Target, Doesn’t Know About SDNY’s Case Against Cohen, Denies Witness Tampering

FEB. 1, 2019: Belarusan Model Says She Gave 2016 Election Material to Deripaska

[IMPORTANT NOTE: The Trump-Russia Timeline now appears at Dan Rather’s News & Guts and at Just Security.]

Last week, the most successful special counsel in history added two more notches to his holster. But Robert Mueller is letting others wear it. For him, a good result in the defense of American democracy matters; who gets credit for it does not. He is a living lesson in leadership by example.

The Americans (on Television) Comes to Life

On Dec. 13, Maria Butina appeared in court to present the guilty plea agreement that she had signed a few days earlier. Butina admitted that during the 2016 campaign, she conspired against the United States to promote Russian influence over the Republican Party via the NRA. She also agreed to cooperate with law enforcement authorities, including Mueller. Her story isn’t over.

The Butina investigation was well within the special counsel’s investigative mandate, but he farmed it out to Trump’s chosen US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jesse Liu. On the official Justice Department scorecard, she gets the win.

Cohen: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

At least nominally, the other big federal prosecutorial victory last week isn’t a Mueller case, either. The special counsel had referred the investigation of Michael Cohen to the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. As with Liu, Trump interviewed Geoffrey Berman personally before appointing him to that position.

To his credit, Berman recused himself from the Cohen investigation and deputy US attorney Robert Khuzami for the Southern District has ben running the show. Like Butina, Cohen continues to meet with Mueller, so the ripples from that case aren’t over, either.

Shortly after a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison, the US attorney’s office in New York announced a non-prosecution agreement with the National Enquirer‘s parent company. Coupled with Cohen’s testimony, the company’s related “Statement of Admitted Facts” put Trump squarely in the crosshairs of a felony for conspiring to violate campaign finance laws. But Khuzami is holding the weapon, not Mueller.

Why Does Mueller Do It?

Although Robert Mueller has not been speaking to the press, he hasn’t been living under a rock. From the early days of his appointment as special counsel, he has known that Trump and his minions systematically sought to undermine Mueller’s personal credibility, the Trump-Russia investigation, and the rule of law.

Next week’s update will include the independent reports to the Senate Intelligence Committee. They confirm that Russia’s massive social media influence campaign continued long past the election. Having put Trump in the White House, Putin has been trying to protect him by joining his attacks on Mueller.

Mueller’s Response: Speed and Strategy

With something akin to the sword of Damocles hanging overhead and arrows coming from all sides, Mueller has moved swiftly. Even without the threats to his investigation, perhaps he would have moved at the same pace. But the special counsel investigations in Iran-Contra and Watergate continued for more than four years. Already, Mueller has far more indictments, convictions, and plea agreements to show for his 18-month effort than either of those probes.

Mueller has also moved strategically. Some elements of his approach reveal themselves in the sequence of his indictments, criminal complaints, and plea agreements. But another example is his referral of some investigations to other US attorneys.

Mueller could have retained the Butina, Cohen, and other cases that he has referred to other US attorney offices. But the referrals assure that, at least in some form, the Trump-Russia investigation will survive, even if Trump and his minions limit, terminate, or mute Mueller’s efforts.

Other US attorneys may get credit for successful past and future prosecutions relating to various tentacles of the Trump-Russia octopus. Observers paying close attention know the truth: Before all of the investigations are over, Mueller is gonna need a bigger holster — even if he allows others to wear it occasionally.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline now at Dan Rather’s News & Guts and at Just Security:

MAR. 24, 2015: Butina and Erickson Draft ‘Diplomacy’ Project; Russia Approves (revision of previous entry)

AUGUST 2015: Trump-Pecker-Cohen Deal to Silence Women (revision of previous entry)

DEC. 11, 2015: NRA Leaders Meet with Wife of Butina’s Financial Backer (revision of previous entry)

MAR. 10-11, 2016: Butina Works With Erickson; Thanks O’Neill for Helping US-Russia Relations (revision of previous entry)

APR. 23-28, 2016: Torshin Gives Butina Another Task (revision of previous entry)

JUN. 22, 2016: Erickson Suggests Language for Butina’s Report to Torshin (revision of previous entry)

JUL. 25, 2016: Stone Tells Corsi to Get WikiLeaks’ Hacked Emails (revision of previous entry)

JULY 31, 2016: Stone to Corsi: ‘Malloch Should See Assange’

AUG. 5, 2016: Pecker Buys Rights to Karen McDougal’s Story; Trump Directs Cohen to Violate Campaign Finance Laws (revision of previous entry)

AUGUST 2016: Butina Enters US on Student Visa (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 16, 2016 Butina Tries to Schedule ‘Friendship and Dialogue’ Dinner (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 4, 2016: Erickson Writes About Private Line of Communication with Kremlin (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 5, 2016: Butina and Torshin Exchange Messages: ‘We Made Our Bet’ (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 6-7, 2016: Intelligence Community Publishes Statement on Russian Interference; Stone to Corsi: ‘Tell Assange to Start Dumping’; Access Hollywood Tapes Released (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 8-9, 2016: Butina: ‘I Am Ready For Further Orders’ (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 11, 2016: Butina Asks for Russian Reaction to Trump’s Possible Secretary of State Nominee (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 30, 2016: Butina Writes About Establishing US-Russia ‘Back Channel’ (revision of previous entry)

JUL. 18, 2018: Butina Held Without Bail Pending Trial (revision of previous entry)

DEC. 7, 2018: Whitaker Meets with Kushner

DEC. 8, 2018: Butina Pleads Guilty; Erickson Note Revealed

DEC. 10, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘NO COLLUSION’, ‘WITCH HUNT’, ‘No SMOCKING GUN’; ‘Cohen Just Trying To Get His Sentence Reduced’; Blasts Comey (revision of previous entry)

DEC. 11, 2018: Trump Attacks Comey; Claims Bias in FBI

DEC. 11, 2018: Trump on Dismisses Impeachment Concerns: ‘People Would Revolt’

DEC. 12, 2018: Cohen Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

DEC. 12, 2018: SDNY Announces Non-Prosecution Deal with AMI

DEC. 13, 2018: Trump Tweets Attack Cohen, Criticize Flynn’s ‘Great Deal’, ‘Witch Hunt!’

DEC. 13, 2018: DOJ Inspector General Issues Report on Missing Strzok/Page Text Messages

DEC. 15, 2018: Trump Tweets: Press Should Cover ‘REAL story on Russia, Clinton & the DNC’, Attacks Strzok and Lisa Page, Again 

DEC. 16, 2018: Trump Tweets About SNL: ‘A REAL Scandal Is The One-Sided Coverage’; Attacks Strzok and Lisa Page, Again; Calls Cohen a ‘Rat’; Quotes Starr on ‘Collusion’; Tweets About Corsi, Flynn; ‘Witch Hunt’

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that December 7 was a “date which will live in infamy.” Seventy-seven years later, it became infamous again. But the Pearl Harbor Day bombs of 2018 overshadowed an important new twist in the larger Trump-Russia conspiracy against the United States. It involves what became a favorite Trump campaign lie about Hillary Clinton.

And Russia helped Trump promote it.

The latest revelations about the Trump-Russia conspiracy to create and disseminate a false narrative around Hillary Clinton’s health became lost in last week’s sensational court filings relating to Mike Flynn, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort. So let’s start this week’s post by shining a spotlight on the “Hillary’s Health” smoking gun. Then we’ll get to Mueller’s Pearl Harbor Day 2018 and Trump’s newest problems arising from the separate federal prosecution of Cohen in Manhattan.

The Hillary Clinton Health Conspiracy

How did lies about Hillary Clinton’s health become a central feature of Trump’s campaign?

Here are the links in the chain behind that falsehood, which hit the stage in early August 2016:

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange (custodian of emails that Russian Intelligence hacked) and RT (Russia’s state-owned television propaganda network) –> Jerome Corsi (Roger Stone’s associate) –> Roger Stone (Trump confidant) –> Trump (GOP presidential nominee) –> RT (media amplifier) –> Russian Intelligence (social media amplifier)

Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline, click on Julian Assange and Roger Stone, and pay particular attention to events beginning in June 2016. Many of them became public only last week:

JUNE 4, 8, 10, 17, 23, 2016: Representatives of Russia’s state-owned television propaganda network, RT, visit Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he is living in exile.

JULY 25: Roger Stone tells Jerome Corsi to get from WikiLeaks the emails that the Russians had hacked.

AUG. 2: Assange tells RT that WikiLeaks will release Clinton Foundation emails soon.

AUG. 2: Corsi informs Stone that WikiLeaks plans to release the hacked emails. Corsi also suggests that the Trump campaign should attack Clinton’s health.

AUG. 3: Stone speaks with Trump.

AUG. 4: Stone says that he “dined with Assange last night” and “devastating” WikiLeaks documents aimed at Clinton are coming soon.

AUG. 5: Stone tweets that Assange is a hero.

AUG. 8: Stone boasts that he has communicated with Assange.

AUG. 8: RT publishes a false story about Clinton’s health. The same day, Russian Intelligence operatives post the first of almost 500 tweets or retweets featuring the hashtag #HillarysHealth.

AUG. 8-11: Sean Hannity devotes an entire week to the bogus issue of Clinton’s health.

AUG. 15: Trump attacks Clinton’s health.

AUG. 30: RT itself begins using the hashtag #HillarysHealth in tweets to promote its articles on Clinton’s condition.

And so on and so on and so on…

When multiple pieces of evidence point in the same direction to yet another dimension of the Trump-Russia conspiracy to elect a US president, Trump’s defenders dismiss them as coincidences. But without any evidence at all, those same defenders claim that Trump — the clear beneficiary of Russia’s assistance — is the victim of a conspiracy against him, led by….Trump’s Justice Department, career federal servants, and lifelong Republicans, including Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.

Here’s an idea: Let’s agree on a definition of conspiracy. Then let’s apply that definition in an even-handed way to the evidence in the Trump-Russia scandal. The only prerequisite to playing is a willingness to consider facts and put America ahead of political preferences.

That’s what Robert Mueller is doing. And he is discovering that the Trump-Russia octopus has many tentacles. That’s why Jerome Corsi and Roger Stone expect to be indicted. It’s also why — based on the Timeline, together with evidence that Mueller has and the public doesn’t — those expectations are reasonable.

Mueller’s Pearl Harbor Day 2018

Understandably, the media gave far more attention to the memoranda that Mueller filed in the cases involving Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Mike Flynn. Those filings include hints of much more Trump-Russia scandal to come:

— During the campaign, Trump and Cohen discussed ongoing prospective business deals with Russia that would bring “hundreds of millions of dollars” to the Trump Organization.

— During the campaign, intermediaries offered “political synergy” and “synergy on a government level” from Russia to help Trump win the election.

—  Flynn is assisting Mueller’s “investigation concerning any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald J. Trump”;

— Well into 2018, Manafort’s representatives were in contact with representatives of the Trump administration. The lawyers among them who believe that attorney-client privilege and joint defense agreements will save them should take another look at the crime-fraud exception. At best, all of those individuals are now witnesses in Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation. Some could be subjects; some may be even targets. Stick with Trump long enough and that’s your fate.

A Separate Front: Campaign Finance Law Violations

Finally, a Dec. 7 filing in the Southern District of New York puts Trump in a new world of hurt that even firing Robert Mueller can’t stop. Prosecutors in the New York office of the acting US attorney — which is headed by Trump’s personal selection to replace Preet Bharara — accused Trump of directing Michael Cohen to violate federal campaign finance laws. Twice.

Together with David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer, Trump and Cohen devised a scheme to buy the silence of women claiming to be Trump’s former mistresses. The goal was to shut them up and thereby preserve Trump’s presidential prospects. At Trump’s direction, six-figure payments went to a former Playboy model and an adult-film actress.

Whether Trump can escape criminal prosecution while in office has been the subject of debate. But with respect to the SDNY case, Prof. Laurence Tribe argues persuasively that the Constitution mandates prosecution of a president who breaks the law to win the office. In any event, the SDNY filing renders three things beyond question:

First, even if Prof. Tribe’s analysis is wrong, Trump must win a second term to eliminate his criminal exposure. The moment he leaves office, the law can land on him like a ton of bricks — just as it would any other citizen. If convicted of the felonies in which he is now implicated, he’ll go to jail, unless he gets a pardon from his Oval Office successor.

Second, even assuming that Trump personally cannot be prosecuted while in office, other co-conspirators can. Future defendants could include the Trump Organization, senior executives, the Trump Foundation, and Trump family members Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric. In fact, the key allegation against Trump refers to “one or more members of the campaign,” suggesting to Prof. Ryan Goodman and Andy Wright at JustSecurity.org that “more indictments for the hush money scheme may still be in the offing.” (Their analysis of the last week’s court filings is worth a careful read.)

And third, special counsel Robert Mueller isn’t prosecuting the campaign finance law conspiracy charges in Manhattan; the New York office of Trump’s Justice Department is. Even getting rid of Mueller won’t make that front in Trump’s war against the rule of law go away.

All around Trump, the walls are collapsing. Like a cornered, rabid animal, he becomes more dangerous every day.

And where is the complicit GOP in Congress? The silence is deafening.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

SEPT. 16, 2015: Trump Says He’d Get Along With Putin

SEPT. 17, 2015: Cohen Says Trump and Putin Might Meet Later This Month

OCT. 28, 2015: Trump Signs Letter of Intent for Trump Tower in Moscow (revision of previous entry)

NOVEMBER 2015: Cohen Speaks with ‘Trusted Person’ in Russia Offering ‘Political Synergy’ and ‘Synergy on a Government Level’ to Trump Campaign

JUNE 4, 2016: RT Visits Assange

JUNE 8, 2016: RT Visits Assange

JUNE 10, 2016: RT Visits Assange

JUNE 17, 2016: RT Visits Assange

JUNE 23, 2016: RT Visits Assange

AUG. 2, 2016: Assange Tells RT That WikiLeaks Will Release Clinton Foundation Emails

AUG. 5, 2016: Pecker Buys Rights to Karen McDougal’s Story; Trump Directs Cohen to Violate Campaign Finance Laws

AUG. 8-30, 2016: RT and Russian Intelligence Follow Corsi’s Predicted Strategy On Clinton’s Health, Clinton Foundation Through Media and Social Media

AUG. 8, 2016: Pecker’s National Enquirer Attacks Clinton’s Health

AUG. 15, 2018: Trump Attacks Clinton’s Health

OCT. 25-26, 2016: Giuliani Discusses Coming ‘Surprise’; Comey Orders Internal Investigation of FBI NY Office (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 26-27, 2016: Trump Again Directs Cohen to Violate Campaign Finance Laws; Cohen Signs Non-Disclosure Agreement with Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) (revision of previous entry)

AROUND MAY 15, 2017: Manafort Tries to Broker Assange Deal

AUG. 28-30, 2017: Story Breaks on Trump Tower-Moscow; Cohen Lies to Congress; Russia Participates in Trump/Cohen Cover-Up (revision of previous entry)

MAY 26, 2018: Manafort Authorizes Representative to Speak with Trump Administration Official On His Behalf

AUG. 7, 2018: At Cohen’s Request, He Meets with Mueller, Provides False Answers Regarding Trump Tower-Moscow

NOV. 26, 2018: Mueller Says Manafort Lied After Plea Agreement (revision of previous entry)

DEC. 3, 2018: Trump Tweets; Cohen Should Get ‘Full and Complete Sentence’; Praises Stone’s ‘Guts’; Attacks Mueller

DEC. 3, 2018: Stone Invokes Fifth Amendment

DEC. 4, 2018: Mueller’s Sentencing Memo Urges Leniency for Flynn

DEC. 5, 2018: Erickson Has Received ‘Target’ Letter

DEC. 6, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Witch Hunt’, ‘Presidential Harassment’; Quotes Corsi: ‘This Is Not Justice’; Attacks FBI

DEC. 7, 2018: Trump Tweets Attack ‘Mueller Conflicts’, ‘Lyin’ James Comey’, Mueller’s Team Members, ’17 Angry Democrats’, ‘Crooked Hillary’, Clinton Foundation, Rosenstein ‘Conflicted’, Bruce Ohr, John Brennan, James Clapper, ‘Final Witch Hunt Report’

DEC. 7, 2018: Trump to Nominate Barr as AG

DEC. 7, 2018: Comey Testifies; Trump Tweets

DEC. 7, 2018: Mueller Aims at Manafort

DEC. 7, 2018: Mueller and SDNY File Briefs on Cohen; SDNY Implicates Trump

DEC. 7, 2018: Trump Tweets Another Lie: ‘Totally Clears the President’

DEC. 7, 2018: Treasury Dept. Delays Sanctions Against Rusal

DEC. 8, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘NO COLLUSION!’, ‘Time for the Witch Hunt To END’

DEC. 9, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey’s Dec. 7 Testimony

DEC. 10, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘NO COLLUSION’, ‘WITCH HUNT’, ‘Cohen Just Trying To Get His Sentence Reduced’

Michael Cohen‘s surprise guilty plea on Nov. 29 and his sentencing memorandum the next day suggest that special counsel Robert Mueller is hard at work with a long way to go. For months, the media have reported the wishful thinking of Trump’s lawyers pushing the narrative that Mueller is “almost done” or “wrapping things up.”

None of that is coming from Mueller’s team. So when you hear or read that the “concluding phase” of the special counsel’s work is underway, consider the source. The media reporting those stories aren’t. Such predictions are not news. They are Trump-based propaganda.

Cohen Confirms Putin’s Leverage Over Trump

Mueller speaks exclusively through his court filings. And on Nov. 29, he did it through Michael Cohen’s plea. Trump’s trusted personal attorney for a dozen years has now told federal courts that he lied to Congress about what was happening during the 2016 presidential campaign. Specifically,

— Cohen followed Trump’s instructions and violated campaign finance laws by buying the silence of Trump’s former mistresses.

— Cohen pursued the Trump Tower-Moscow project as late as June 2016 and, along the way, kept Trump and the Trump family informed personally of its status and progress.

— Cohen and Trump discussed possible trips to Russia for meetings with top government officials about approvals and financing for Trump Tower-Moscow.

— All of Trump’s contrary statements that he never had anything to do with Russia were lies.

The last item is especially important.

For more than three years, Putin has known more about Trump’s dealings with Russia than the American people have. That information gap has been a source of Putin’s leverage over Trump and highlights the fundamental question driving Mueller’s counterintelligence investigation:

What else does Putin know about Trump that the American public does not, and when did he learn it?

More is coming. Cohen is cooperating with Mueller, the New York Attorney General, and the New York State Department of Tax and Finance in connection with ongoing investigations into Trump, the Trump Organization, and the Trump Foundation.

Less Obvious Danger to Trump Loyalists and Lawyers

Here’s an under-reported nugget in the Cohen sentencing memo that should have Trump’s lawyers especially concerned: As Cohen was crafting lies that he told Congress, he kept Trump’s legal team informed. He wanted to make sure that he was following Trump’s desired Trump-Russia messaging. That could be a problem for Trump’s lawyers.

I’ve read all of the publicly released transcripts of witnesses who testified before the farcical House investigation into Trump-Russia. Some witnesses treated the proceedings cavalierly. They probably thought that blowing off the Trump Party-controlled Congress posed had no downside risk.

Donald Trump Jr. and Erik Prince, for example, knew that their allies in the Trump Party (formerly the GOP) would never authorize contempt proceedings and thereby force full and complete answers to proper questions that Democrats in Congress had posed to them. Absurd invocations of “executive privilege” and evasive non-answers went unchallenged. Trump and his loyalists emerged unscathed.

Or so they and Trump thought.

Case Studies for Future Law Students

On Nov. 6, Trump, Don Jr., and Prince probably started sweating when Democrats won control of the House. Suddenly, the prospect of new subpoenas and contempt proceedings loomed large.

But Cohen’s surprise plea must have sent them reeling as much as it sent Trump tweeting. That’s because Mueller prosecuted Cohen — and obtained a guilty plea — for his false statements to Congress, not to Mueller or his team. In the long run, the Trump Party in the House had afforded them no protection at all.

Mueller has some of those congressional transcripts, including Don Jr.’s and Prince’s. Soon he’ll have the rest. That means more indictments are coming. It also means predicting that Mueller will wrap up his work by the end of the year is, well, wandering out on a fragile limb.

For a summary of the many Trump minions who have lied to federal authorities (including Congress) about Trump-Russia, look at Ryan Goodman’s thorough and meticulously sourced “Perjury Chart” at JustSecurity.org.

History Lesson Not Learned

Which takes us to the problem for Trump’s lawyers. They have crafted more than 30 “joint defense agreements” with various witnesses and subjects in Mueller’s investigation. In doing so, the Trump legal team may have outsmarted itself.

Based on Cohen’s plea, it sure looks like some of Trump’s attorneys were aware that Cohen was going to appear before Congress and spout Trump’s false messaging — i.e., lie. Who else besides Cohen went through such a coordination exercise? Mueller knows and soon the public will, too.

At best, those attorneys are now witnesses to potential obstruction of justice. At worst, they are targets of such an inquiry.

Watch This Space

More than 20 Watergate attorneys were involved in wronging. Some lost their licenses; some landed in prison; some suffered both fates. It’s time to start a tally of imprisoned and/or disbarred Trump-Russia players with law degrees.

In the weeks and months ahead, this list will grow:

Paul Manafort (JD, Georgetown, ’74)

Michael Cohen (JD, Cooley, ’91)

Alex van der Zwaan (LLB, King’s College, ’06)

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

OCT. 28, 2015: Trump Signs Letter of Intent for Trump Tower in Moscow (revision of previous entry)

NOVEMBER 3, 2015: Sater and Cohen Pursue Trump Tower-Moscow

REVISED: NOVEMBER 2015-JUNE 2016: Cohen Keeps Trump Informed of Trump Tower-Moscow Developments; Sater and Cohen Consider a Free $50 Million Penthouse for Putin (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 14, 2016: Cohen Seeks Kremlin’s Help in Trump Tower Deal (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 16-21, 2016: Cohen Sends Another Message to Moscow; Kremlin Responds

MAY 4, 2016: Cohen and Sater Discuss Trump Trip to Russia

MAY 5, 2016: Sater Invites Cohen to St. Petersburg, Russia for Potential Putin/Medvedev Meeting

JUNE 2016: Cohen Discusses Status of Moscow Project with Trump

JUNE 14, 2016: Cohen Ditches Plan to Visit Russia

JULY 25, 2016: Stone Tells Corsi to Get WikiLeaks’ Hacked Emails

JULY 26, 2016: Trump: ‘I Have Nothing to Do With Russia’

AUG. 2-11, 2016: Corsi Informs Stone of WikiLeaks’ Plans, Suggests Attacking Clinton’s Health; Stone Talks to Trump; Hannity Helps

OCT. 9, 2016: Trump on Russia: ‘I Don’t Deal There’

OCT. 24, 2016: Trump: ‘I Have Nothing to Do With Russia’

OCT. 26, 2016: Trump: ‘I Have Nothing to Do With Russia’

JAN. 11, 2017: Trump: ‘We’ve Stayed Away’ From Deals in Russia

FEB. 7, 2017: Trump Tweets: ‘I Don’t Know Putin; Have No Deals in Russia’

AUG. 28-30, 2017: Story Breaks on Trump Tower-Moscow; Russia Participates in Trump/Cohen Cover-Up

SEPT. 1, 2017: Trump’s Lawyers Ask Rosenstein to Investigate Comey

SPRING 2018: Trump Tells McGahn to Investigate Clinton and Comey

REVISED: SEPT. 14, 2018: Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller But Continues Feeding Info to Trump (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 22, 2018: Giuliani Admits Manafort Is Feeding Mueller Info To Trump Lawyers; Trump Has 32 Joint Defense Agreements with Mueller Witnesses or Subjects

NOV. 9, 2018: Court Wants Briefs on Impact of Whitaker Replacing Sessions (revision of previous entry)

WEEK OF NOV. 12, 2018: Trump Gets Draft of Corsi Plea Deal

NOV. 16, 2018: Papadopoulos Seeks Postponement (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 16-29, 2018: Comey Responds to GOP Congressional Demands With Desire to Appear Publicly; Cuts Deal (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 19, 2018: Senate Democrats File Suit to Remove Whitaker

NOV. 20, 2018: Trump Has Provided Written Answers to Mueller; Topics Include WikiLeaks, Trump Tower Meeting, and GOP Platform Change

NOV. 23, 2018: Corsi Says He’s in Plea Talks With Mueller

NOV. 25, 2018: Russia Captures Ukrainian Naval Vessels in Black Sea; EU Issues Immediate Condemnation; Trump Equivocates

NOV. 26, 2018: Trump Tweets About Anticipated Mueller Report, ‘Hundreds of People’ Who Had No Campaign Contact with Russians

NOV. 26, 2018: Mueller Says Manafort Lied After Plea Agreement

NOV. 27, 2018: Trump Tweets About ‘Conflicted’ Mueller, ‘Phony Witch Hunt’, ‘Gang of Angry Democrats’, Clinton E-mail Server

NOV. 27, 2018: Trump Retweets Image of Critics, Mueller, and Rosenstein: ‘When Do Trials For Treason Begin?’

NOV. 28, 2018: Trump Tweets About ‘Gang of Angry Dems’,  ‘Witch Hunt’, ‘Hoax’

NOV. 28, 2018: Trump Says Manafort Pardon ‘on the Table’, Rips Mueller

NOV. 29, 2018: Trump Tweets About ‘Mueller and the Angry Democrats’, ‘Crooked Hillary’

NOV. 29, 2018: Cohen Pleads Guilty in Mueller Probe; Coordinated False Congressional Statements with Trump Legal Team

NOV. 29, 2018: Kremlin Reverses Earlier Cover-Up Statement About Cohen Emails

NOV. 29-30, 2018: Trump Cancels G-20 Meeting with Putin; Kremlin Pushes Back; Trump Says He Might Meet with Putin After All

NOV. 29, 2018: Trump Blasts Cohen

NOV. 29, 2018: German Authorities Raid Deutsche Bank

NOV. 29, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘Witch Hunt’, ‘Hoax,’ Cites Dershowitz

NOV. 30, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘Lightly Looked at Doing a Building Somewhere in Russia’ While Running for President

After pushing Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of office, Trump bypassed a plethora of qualified potential replacements. Without question, they would have been constitutionally eligible for the job of acting attorney general. They would have no disabling conflicts of interest relating to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. They would not have brought with them a history of conspiracy theories, nonsensical legal views, and untoward business ventures.

Instead, Trump chose Matthew Whitaker, who comes with all of that baggage and more. To Trump, he’s a “three-fer”: political hack, vocal critic of Mueller’s probe, and unapologetic Trump loyalist.

Why Whitaker?

In March 2017, Trump was increasingly frustrated with his unsuccessful efforts to stop the Trump-Russia probe. Referring to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s (R-WI) notorious 1950s attorney and hatchet-man, he asked:

“Where’s my Roy Cohn?”

Now Trump has provided the answer: Matthew Whitaker.

The federal courts will resolve the serious legal questions surrounding Whitaker’s legitimacy as acting attorney general. But that may be the least of his problems — which are now the country’s problems — revolving around a single question: Why did Trump send Attorney General Jeff Sessions packing and appoint Whitaker in his place?

Don’t ask Trump. He’ll lie. Even when the truth is obvious, he lies.

Whitaker Got the Job for a Reason

Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on Jeff Sessions’ and Matthew Whitaker’s names. Combining the entries for the two men reveals how Whitaker auditioned for and won a leading role in Trump’s ongoing attack on the rule of law.

On March 3, 2017 — the day after Sessions’ recused himself from the Russia probe — Trump began his relentless barrage against the attorney general. After Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel on May 17, Trump turned up the heat.

Enter Matthew Whitaker, who followed the advice of his fellow failed Iowa politician, Sam Clovis — a grand jury witness in Mueller’s investigation. Clovis had told Whitaker that if he wanted Trump’s favorable attention, Whitaker should get a gig as a cable news commentator and use that forum to blast the Mueller probe.

Roll the Tape

— June 21: Whitaker appears on a right-wing talk radio show and declares: “The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign.”

— July 10: Whitaker defends Don Jr.’s decision to meet with Russians at Trump Tower.

— July 19: Using the vehicle of a New York Times interview, Trump continues attacking Sessions.

— July 22-26: Trump bombards Sessions with Twitter-fits and tells The Wall Street Journal that he’s “very disappointed” in Sessions.

— July 26: As a CNN pundit, Whitaker outlines a strategy for killing the Mueller probe: fire Sessions; install a Trump lackey as an acting attorney general; let the lackey starve the Mueller probe of funds; Trump-Russia investigation dies.

— July 2017, White House counsel Don McGahn interviews Whitaker about becoming a Trump “legal attack dog” against Mueller. Reportedly, Whitaker didn’t get the job, but you wouldn’t know it from his subsequent behavior:

— August 6: Whitaker criticizes Mueller as “going to far” if he crosses the red line of looking into Trump or Trump family finances.

— August 7: Whitaker says he fears Mueller will engage in a “fishing expedition.”

— August: McGahn pressures Sessions to hire Whitaker as Sessions’ chief of staff.

— Sept. 22: Sessions hires Whitaker as his chief of staff.

— Nov. 7: Trump fires Sessions and appoints Whitaker as acting AG.

Trump Lies About Whitaker for a Reason

In a Nov. 16 interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Trump said with a straight face that he had no idea Whitaker held views that were hostile to the Mueller investigation. He claimed not to know that Whitaker-as-CNN pundit had outlined the very strategy that Trump has now employed: fire Sessions and appoint a loyalist lackey who is hostile to the Mueller probe.

But during an interview with the Daily Caller only two days earlier, a reporter’s question about the new acting attorney general caused Trump to make the immediate and obvious connection between Whitaker’s appointment and the Russia probe. Trump said:

“I knew him only as he pertained, you know, as he was with Jeff Sessions. And, you know, look, as far as I’m concerned this is an investigation that should have never been brought. It should have never been had. It’s something that should have never been brought. It’s an illegal investigation.”

It was another “Lester Holt moment.” Just as Trump had admitted on national television that he fired James Comey because Comey was allowing “the Russia thing” to proceed, so, too, Trump acknowledged to the Daily Caller his true motive for firing Sessions and appointing Whitaker: the Russia investigation.

Whitaker Can’t Win This One

Blinded by ambition and personal loyalty to Trump, Whitaker won Sessions’ job. Assuming the federal courts don’t boot him first, he’s still destined for an ignominious end. After completIng Trump’s assigned mission, he’ll go the way of all Trump lackeys who outlive their usefulness. Like them, he will have planted himself firmly on the wrong side of history; his reputation will lie in tatters; his legacy will be another page in the dark chapter of American history known as the Trump era.

It’s the Trumpian way. Call it the reverse-King Midas touch. There’s no honor in becoming Trump’s Roy Cohn.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

AUG. 27-28, 2016: Smith Meets with Hackers in DC

AUGUST 2017: McGahn Pressures Sessions to Hire Whitaker

SEPT. 22, 2017: Sessions Yields to White House Pressure; Whitaker Becomes Sessions’ Chief of Staff, West Wing’s ‘Eyes and Ears’ at DOJ (revision of previous entry)

AUG. 13, 2018: Another Judge Rejects Challenges to Mueller’s Authority (revision of previous entry)

AUG. 22, 2018: Court Filing Refers Mysteriously to Assange

NOV. 12, 2018: Corsi Says He Expects to Be Indicted; Doesn’t Recall Meeting Assange

NOV. 12, 2018: Trump Refuses to Sign Int’l Cyberattack Attack Accord

NOV. 13, 2018: State of Maryland Challenges Whitaker Appointment

NOV. 14, 2018: McConnell Blocks Bill to Protect Mueller

NOV. 14, 2018: Gates Still Cooperating: Sentencing Process Delayed

NOV. 14, 2018: Trump Pleased with Whitaker

NOV. 15, 2018: Trump Tweets about ‘Inner Workings’ of Mueller Probe; Lies About Mueller; Decries ‘Witch Hunt’; Slams Others

NOV. 15, 2018: Graham: Whitaker Sees No Reason to Fire Mueller

NOV. 16, 2018: Papadopoulos Seeks Postponement

NOV. 16, 2018: Trump Comments on Mueller ‘Hoax’ and Answers to Written Questions

NOV. 16, 2018: Comey Responds to GOP Congressional Demands

NOV. 16, 2018: Trump Trusts Whitaker to Do ‘What’s Right’, Claims Ignorance of Whitaker’s Views about Mueller Probe

NOV. 18. 2018: Trump Attacks Schiff, Mueller

The Trump-Russia Timeline is particularly useful this week. It helps seemingly unrelated pieces of the puzzle come together. The emerging picture is frightening.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions “resigned” — at Trump’s request. The more appropriate employment law concept for his departure is “constructive discharge” — that’s when a hostile work environment drives an employee from a job. Whatever the reason, the implications for the country are profound: Trump has begun his final assault on special counsel Robert Mueller and the rule of law. American democracy’s alarm bells are blaring.

This is not a drill.

Mueller Protector Gone

When Sessions recused himself from the Mueller probe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein assumed supervisory responsibility for the investigation. The results through Nov. 13, 2018: criminal charges against 32 individuals and 3 entities; guilty pleas from several prominent Trump advisers, including former national security adviser Mike Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and deputy campaign Rick Gates; jury verdicts against campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Mueller isn’t done. Absent interference, more indictments and a final report are coming. But compared to all previous special counsels, he has already achieved stunning results in record time. For example, the Iran-Contra and Whitewater investigations and related proceedings each continued for more than four years and yielded far less.

Matthew Whitaker’s Mission

This week, Matthew Whitaker became Trump’s latest assault weapon. For that, Whitaker earns his own pop-up bubble and name filter on the Trump-Russia Timeline. He could be on his way to earning an orange jumpsuit, too.

Trump chose Whitaker to complete a mission: end the federal investigations that threaten Trump’s presidency, his wealth, and even his personal freedom. Any doubters need look no farther than Whitaker’s record before Sept. 22, 2017, when he became Sessions’ chief of staff at the Justice Department.

Whitaker Has A Mueller Problem

Sam Clovis was national co-chairman of the Trump campaign. In 2014, he had run unsuccessfully for the Iowa Republican nomination to the US Senate. So did Matthew Whitaker. They became such good friends that Whitaker ran Clovis’ next campaign — for Iowa state treasurer, also in 2014. Clovis lost that one, too, but the two men remained friends.

Here’s the thing: Clovis has appeared before Mueller’s grand jury. To see why, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on his name. Clovis intersects with several important Trump-Russia players: including George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. Click on all three names and look at the resulting entries to get a small sample the breadth and depth of Clovis’s Trump-Russia problems.

Here’s the punchline: Shortly after Clovis’ grand jury appearance and Papadopoulos’ guilty plea identifying Clovis as the recipient of emails relating to Trump campaign contacts with Russia, Clovis withdrew his nomination to become Trump’s top scientist for the US Department of Agriculture — a position he was never qualified to hold.

Whitaker Has A Bias Problem

From October 2014 to September 2017, Whitaker was executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). The organization publicizes what it describes as ethical lapses by prominent Democrats and asks government agencies and law enforcement to investigate them. In other words, Whitaker was a GOP attack dog.

Immediately before Whitaker joined Trump’s Justice Department, he was a paid legal commentator for CNN — a gig that Clovis recommended he pursue. Among Whitaker’s stated opinions:

— Hillary Clinton should have been indicted (he wrote that in a July 2016 op-ed complaining about Comey’s explanation for not recommending prosecution);

— There was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign;

— Donald Trump Jr. did nothing wrong in meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in June 2016;

— Mueller would exceed his mandate if he ventured into the financial affairs of Trump or his family;

— One way to kill the Mueller probe would be for Trump to fire Sessions, name an acting AG who could then cut Mueller’s budget and starve the investigation to death.

And so on, and so on, and so on….

Whitaker has other baggage. Beginning in October 2014, he was an advisory board member for a scam company that the federal government shut down in May 2017. The FBI still has an active criminal investigation on the company. If Whitaker keeps his job as head of the Justice Department, he’ll be in ultimate charge of all DOJ agencies, including the FBI.

And for the lawyers in the audience, Whitaker thinks Marbury v. Madison — the seminal case establishing the federal courts’ power to review the constitutionality of legislation — is a “bad ruling.” He also said “good judges” follow the New Testament.

As for whether he’ll remain in the position that he nominally holds, a bipartisan group of lawyers and legal scholars — including Kellyanne Conway‘s husband — insists that his appointment is unconstitutional.

America Has a Whitaker Problem

Reportedly, Whitaker has already told aides that, even though the DOJ’s ethics experts should review Whitaker’s conflicts of interest and admitted biases, he will not recuse himself from the Mueller’s probe.

Why?

Here’s what CNN reported last week:

“‘He’s political to his core,’ a friend said of Whitaker.

“Several GOP officials in Iowa who have known Whitaker for a long time say they were surprised by his shift in the Trump era. He was a George W. Bush loyalist — named a former US attorney in Iowa under Bush — but like many others, he has become a big admirer of Trump along the way.

“‘He worships him,’ a longtime friend said of Whitaker and Trump.”

American democracy’s alarm bells are blaring. This is not a drill.

Here’s the complete list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

OCTOBER 2014: Whitaker Participates in GOP Assault on Democrats; Involved in Scam Company

NOV. 4, 2014: Clovis Loses Bid to Become Iowa State Treasurer

AUGUST 2015: Trump-Pecker Deal To Silence Women

JULY 5, 2016: Whitaker Says He Would Have Indicted Clinton

AUG. 4, 2016: Stone Talks About WikiLeaks’ Impending Releases

OCT. 3-4, 2016: Stone and Bannon Discuss WikiLeaks and Raising ‘$$$’

OCT. 26, 2016: Cohen Signs Non-Disclosure Agreement With Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 3, 2017: Whitaker Says Trump-Russia Conspiracy ‘Crazy’

JUNE 21, 2017: Whitaker Says ‘No Collusion’

JULY 10, 2017: Whitaker Defends Don Jr.’s Trump Tower Meeting; Gets Trump’s Attention

JULY 26, 2017: Whitaker Outlines Strategy For Killing Mueller Probe

AUG. 6, 2017: Whitaker: Mueller Investigation ‘Going Too Far’; Tweet ‘To Trump Lawyers’

AUG. 7, 2017: Whitaker Fears Mueller ‘Fishing Expedition’

SEPT. 22, 2017: Whitaker Becomes Sessions’ Chief of Staff, West Wing’s ‘Eyes and Ears’ at DOJ

SEPT. 7, 2018: Credico Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury; Corsi Initially Bows Out, But Appears Two Weeks Later (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 11, 2018: Trump: ‘Matt Whitaker’s a Great Guy… I Know Him”

DURING THE WEEK OF OCT. 22, 2018: Mueller Reports Pay-Off Scheme to FBI

OCT. 23, 2018: Trump: I ‘Probably Will‘ Meet With Putin in Paris on November 10-11 (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 26, 2018: Mueller Questions Bannon About Stone

NOV 2, 2018: Kremlin: Putin and Trump to Meet at G-20 in Buenos Aires

NOV. 5-11, 2018: Trump Says He Won’t Meet With Putin In Paris; Kremlin Disagrees; They Meet

NOV. 6, 2018: Election Day: Rohrabacher Loses; Democrats Win House; Republicans Keep Senate

NOV. 7, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller ‘Witch Hunt’

NOV. 7, 2018: Trump Fires Sessions; Whitaker Becomes Acting AG

NOV. 9, 2018: Trump: ‘I Don’t Know Matt Whitaker’; Didn’t Discuss Mueller Probe With Him, Russia ‘Hoax’

NOV. 9, 2018: Court Wants Briefs on Impact of Whitaker Replacing Sessions

NOV. 9, 2018: Trump Defends Whitaker

Three domestic white supremacist terror attacks on America in three days. Future historians may view these events as early shots in the nation’s Second Civil War. If so, Trump is supplying the ammunition.

Future historians may also ask why Trump would do that.

Here’s a lead for them to pursue: Trump’s scorched-democracy strategy may be his only path to surviving the Trump-Russia probe. Trump’s biographers — especially those who have gotten to know him and his techniques best, including Tim O’Brien and David Cay Johnston — have warned that Trump will do anything to survive.

Anything.

That is exactly what we are seeing in real time.

Lost in the Shuffle

On Thursday, Oct. 25, a white supremacist attacked in Louisville, Kentucky. Gregory Bush, an armed, 51-year-old white man, tried to enter a black church. Locked doors stopped him. His consolation prize became two innocent black senior citizens at the nearby Kroger supermarket.

Trump’s response: silence.

Then two more prominent attacks swamped the episode.

“On Both Sides…”

On Friday, Oct. 26, federal authorities arrested the suspected MAGAbomber. Another middle-aged white male, Cesar Sayoc, was accused of sending pipe bombs to Trump’s most prominent rhetorical targets, including Hillary Clinton and CNN.

When the bombs began arriving two days earlier, Trump responded initially by echoing the “false flag” hypothesis that his most ardent supporters were pushing: This was an attempt by Democrats to rob him of media coverage going into the midterms. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Lou Dobbs, Geraldo Rivera. Donald Trump Jr., and others suggested variously that: 1) liberals and/or Democratic operatives were behind the plot; 2) the bombs were “fake” (they weren’t according to FBI Director Christoper Wray); and/or 3) the whole thing was an elaborate hoax.

Then came the truth: Sayoc is a fanatical Trump supporter. At a Trump rally last year, he held up a “CNN sucks” sign. When asked about the accused attacker, Trump said: “I heard he was a person who prefers me over others, but I did not see that.”

Trump refused to answer a reporter’s follow-up question: Does he disavow Sayoc’s support? But the answer came less than two days later when Trump led rally crowds cheering “CNN sucks” and “Lock her up.”

“If There Was An Armed Guard…”

On Saturday, Oct. 27, another domestic terrorist killed eleven worshippers at Pittsburgh’s oldest synagogue. Shortly before he attacked, 46-year-old Robert Bowers railed against the “migrant caravan” — a favorite Trump midterm campaign theme — and the role of Jews who were bringing in immigrants determined to destroy America.

“If there was an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him,” Trump told reporters as he boarded a flight to rallies in Indiana and Illinois. Most telling of all: Trump didn’t cancel his campaign rallies.

Method, Not Madness

Trump understands the impact of his words, especially on his most ardent and psychologically fragile followers. Those words are no longer dog whistles; they’re bullhorns summoning the lesser angels of human nature. When Trump boasts that he’s a “nationalist” and talks about good people “on both sides” of hate crimes — drawing a false moral equivalence between the perpetrators and their victims — he knows exactly what he’s saying and to whom he is saying it. He uses words as bullets, and he knows when he’s pulling the trigger.

Remember when Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

Well, right now, he has aimed the gun at the heart of American democracy.

Now What?

Trump the predator has made what was once the Republican party his host species. As a result, for the past two years he has functioned without any legislative check on his power.

On November 6, that must change. Vote for a Democrat. Any Democrat. A single Democratically-controlled house of Congress won’t solve the nation’s Trump problem. That will take generations. But it’s a start. And if we don’t start somewhere, well…

Vote. On November 6, just vote.

Here are the latest additions to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JAN. 6, 2018: Stone Says He’s Urging Pardon for Assange

OCT. 22, 2018: Bolton Says Russian Election Interference Had No Impact

OCT. 23, 2018: Trump Blasts Cohen Over Tapes

OCT. 23, 2018: Trump: I ‘Probably Will‘ Meet With Putin in November

OCT. 25-26, 2018: House Republicans Interview Papadopoulos; Papadopoulos Has Second Thoughts About Plea Deal, Seeks Immunity from Senate

OCT. 26, 2018: White House Formally Invites Putin to Washington

Vile intent + Trump’s incompetent government + Fox News = unspeakable tragedy.

That’s the equation for the latest developments in the family separation saga and Trump’s related immigration demagoguery.

More Kidnapped Kids? Now?

In an Oct. 25 court filing, the Department of Health and Human Services admitted that it has “found” another 14 kids who should be recategorized as “possible children” separated from their parents at the border. According to Trump’s government, the total number has now risen from 2,654 to 2,668.

If Democrats gain control of just a single house of Congress, a real investigation will reveal the truth. When that happens, expect that number to go up.

Reunification Is No Panacea

Of course, reunification after weeks or months of separation doesn’t undo the damage. For example, after a three-month separation from her parents, a two-year-old girl from Honduras appeared in a federal immigration court where an attorney on her behalf requested voluntary return to her home country.

Two weeks later, she and seven other separated children arrived at San Pedro Sula airport. She greeted her mother with a blank stare. No smile of recognition. Nothing.

There Is No Bottom, But There Is Violence

Meanwhile, Trump politicizes the immigration issue, calling the upcoming election the “caravan-Kavanaugh” midterms. He’s sending thousands of US troops to the southern border to deal with what he describes as an “invasion” by refugees. To do what, exactly? The answer: Serve as props in Trump’s latest publicity stunt.

Under the Posse Comitatus Act, it’s unlawful to deploy the US military for domestic law enforcement purposes. (As for Trump’s assertion that he’ll issue an executive order declaring that children of illegal immigrants born in the US are not citizens, ignore him. The US Constitution’s 14th Amendment stands in his way.)

Trump supporters at Fox & Friends have followed his lead, describing the threat as migrants who may be carrying “diseases.” “They will infect Americans,” Fox’s guests proclaim, rattling off an absurd list: leprosy (almost zero cases in the migrants’ South American countries of origin), smallpox (no evidence of that anywhere in the world), and tuberculosis (the US already has cases of those).

When Fake News Is Really Fake — and Deadly

In the deranged mind of the Pittsburgh synagogue killer, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric intersected with his immigration policy to produce tragic consequences. On social media, Robert Bowers had railed against the “migrant caravan” and the role of Jews in bringing immigrants to America. And then he gunned down 11 unarmed Jews during a worship service.

Where would Bowers get such a nonsensical idea? Try Fox News. For weeks, the “Jews funding migrant caravan” theme has been a network staple. In particular, Fox has joined Alex Jones’ Infowars and other far-right voices linking George Soros, a prominent Jew, to the caravan.

Only two days before the synagogue attack, Fox News’ Lou Hobbs interviewed Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch’s director of investigations and research. Farrell talked about the migrant caravan, saying, “A lot of these folks have affiliates that are getting money from the Soros-occupied State Department.”

Hours after the shooting, Fox rebroadcast the interview.

In a tweet, Dobbs — who attacks Soros regularly — had also ridiculed news coverage of pipe bombs sent to 14 prominent Trump critics: “Fake news – Fake bombs. Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?” When a fanatical Trump supporter became the prime suspect in that attack, Dobbs deleted the tweet.

Where else might Bowers have heard the lies that motivated him? Try congressional Republicans. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) questioned whether Soros was funding the caravan; Fox News dutifully reported it.

And last week, George Soros was one of the pipe-bomber’s intended victims.

Vote. On November 6, just vote.

Trump refuses to believe that they were ever here. The truth is that they never left.

In the 2016 election, Russia attacked the core of American democracy: voting. To this day, Trump has refused to criticize, much less condemn, Vladimir Putin for the attack. And to this day, the attack continues. That’s why this week’s most important new entry in the Trump-Russia Timeline is this:

“OCT. 19, 2018: Russian Charged With 2018 Election Interference”

The defendant in the case, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg, Russia, handles the finances of Russia’s “information warfare” operation against the United States. Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin — a close Putin ally known as “Putin’s chef” — and two companies he controls have funded the attacks.

The latest criminal charges are a sequel to special counsel Robert Mueller’s February 2018 indictment of Prigozhin, his companies, the Internet Research Agency, and 12 other Russian nationals for conspiracy against the US by interfering with the 2016 election.

But Mueller didn’t bring the latest case. The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia did. Why? One reason could be that Mueller is assuming that his days as special counsel are tied to Jeff Sessions’ tenuous fate. In other words, they’re numbered. When Sessions leaves, Trump will appoint a lackey who will gut Mueller’s investigation or fire the special counsel altogether.

Senate Republicans who once defended Sessions, saying that firing him is a “red line” that Trump dare not cross, now admit that they are resigned to Sessions’ departure after the midterms. The dangerous normalization of Trump’s dangerously abnormal, anti-democratic behavior will continue for as long as the Trump Party controls Congress.

But even after Mueller’s probe disappears, the latest federal case in Virginia — like those brought against Michael Cohen in New York and Maria Butina in Washington DC (and wherever Sam Patten’s guilty plea in a yet another DC case leads federal investigators) — will continue. While Trump plays checkers, Mueller is playing three-dimensional chess. Meanwhile, the Russians are playing with American democracy.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

EARLY MAY 2016: Agalarov Forms New US Shell Company

JUNE 20, 2016: Agalarov Wires Almost $20 Million to US Account

SEPT. 14, 2018: Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 28, 2018: Russian Charged With 2018 Election Interference

OCT. 16, 2018: Trump Tweets About Sessions, Ohr, Steele, ‘Witch Hunt’

OCT. 16, 2018: Trump’s AP Interview Blasts ‘Witch Hunt’, Cohen, Sessions; Excuses Don Jr.’s Trump Tower Meeting

OCT. 16, 2018: Rohrabacher Trusts Assange; Says Russia Didn’t Hack DNC

OCT. 17, 2018: Rosenstein Defends Mueller Probe

OCT. 17, 2018: McGahn No Longer White House Counsel

OCT. 19, 2018: Manafort Sentencing Date Set For Feb. 8

OCT. 19, 2018: US Government Warns: Foreign Interference in 2018 Midterm Elections

After six months, how many kids are still in federal custody because Trump’s government deported their parents?

Answer: 50

Meanwhile, in an emergency motion last week, the ACLU said that the government is dragging its feet on a proposed settlement that would allow separated families to pursue their international human rights to seek asylum: “Over 40 detained families decided to accept removal — instead of receive due process — because they simply could not wait in detention any longer.”

No Defense? Try Distraction, Lies, and Offense

Lacking any coherent response to this ongoing crisis that Trump created, he is deploying three characteristically Trump strategies: distraction, lies, and “offense is the best defense.” As a 7,000-person caravan makes its way north from Central America. Trump is using a barrage of lies to demonize them and blame Democrats:

Trump has even made the absurd claims that Democrats had somehow organized the caravan and were banking on its arrival before Election Day so participants could vote for Democrats. Of course, no such asylum-seekers could vote because they would not be US citizens. But it’s a safe bet that some of his fans now believe Trump’s big lies. They also believe his unsupported assertion that the caravan includes terrorists from the Middle East.

The Height of Cynicism

It’s worse than politics, as The Hill reports; “Republicans have found themselves playing defense on immigration since June following the outcry over Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border.

“GOP strategists, citing internal polls, were concerned the family separations would harm Republican candidates, particularly among female voters. Many now see the caravan issue as a midterm blessing, one that could shift the debate away from a humanitarian focus and back to questions of national security and US sovereignty.”

Kids Held Hostage Day 169.

On Nov. 6, vote to make it stop. Otherwise it won’t.

The whole world is watching. If the American people get this one wrong, the immediate impact will be profound and the judgment of history will be harsh.

It should be.

No one can accuse the Trump administration of learning from its mistakes. On Oct. 12, 2018, The Washington Post reported that Trump was considering another family separation policy. When reporter Phil Rucker asked him about it, Trump said that he thinks the initial family separation policy deterred illegal border crossings, so Trump is “looking at everything.”

Everything, that is, except the facts surrounding human tragedies that his policies have already produced.

How Bad Can This Situation Get?

Pretty bad. For example:

— Trump’s government asked a five-year-old child to sign away her rights to a bond hearing that would have reviewed her custody situation.

— Trump’s government is sending children back to their home countries without alerting family members that they’re on the way. A four-year-old was left at a reunification center in Guatemala with no one to pick her up.

— Trump’s government is expanding detention camps for undocumented and unaccompanied migrant teenagers:

“The tent city that the federal government operates at the Tornillo border station about 35 miles southeast of El Paso on the Mexico border was built in June as a temporary home for a few hundred migrant children. Four months later, it has rapidly expanded and has nearly quadrupled in size,” according to The New York Times.

Because the shelter is on federal property, it is not licensed by Texas child welfare officials and does not have to adhere to the same regulations that other traditional migrant youth shelters must follow to maintain their state licensing.

Ripple Effects of a Vile Policy

“Most of the children at Tornillo are waiting for the results of FBI checks on their potential sponsors,” the Times reports “The children cannot be released to the sponsors until fingerprinting and criminal background checks are completed.”

“Indeed, such newly introduced requirements, like the need for sponsors to provide their fingerprints and those of other adults in their households, have delayed even the clearest sponsorship applications, like those brought by parents. Immigration enforcement authorities have also begun using the fingerprints to arrest applicants — most of whom are undocumented immigrants themselves — which has kept some potential sponsors from coming forward.”

Tax Dollars At Work

The Times continues, “Housing children in Tornillo costs about three times as much as placement in a traditional shelter, according to government figures. Mr. [Mark A.] Weber, [a spokesman for] Health and Human Services, could not provide a figure of the total cost to establish and run the tent city. But he said that standard shelter beds cost $250 per day, and temporary emergency shelter beds cost $775 a day.”

The Trump Party on Congress — formerly known as the GOP — remains complicit in what history will mark as one of the great tragedies in modern history. On November 6, the process of redeeming America’s soul must begin.

Shortly after Rick Gates‘ plea agreement in February 2018, I appeared on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” to discuss its implications. I suggested that Gates could be a far bigger problem for Trump than Paul Manafort (assuming Manafort eventually flipped, too). The reason: After Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign in August 2016, Gates remained — all the way through the transition. Gates could provide continuity in telling the Trump-Russia story that Manafort could not. And Trump does not want that story told.

An earlier post highlighted some of the entries that emerge when applying the Rick Gates name filter to the Trump-Russia Timeline. He intersects with several key players in the story: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) (“Putin’s Favorite Congresman”), Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., George Papadopoulos, Brad Parscale (Trump’s 2016 campaign digital director, now manager of Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign), Oleg Deripaska (Russian oligarch), and the NRA, to name a few.

Last week, another piece of the Gates-related narrative emerged. Within days of joining the Trump campaign in March 2016, Gates solicited proposals from Psy-Group (an Israeli company) to create fake online identities, use social media manipulation, and gather intelligence that would help defeat Trump’s Republican primary opponents and Hillary Clinton. In August 2016, Psy-Group’s owner, who had previously worked with Oleg Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev (another Russian oligarch who had bought Trump’s Florida mansion for more than twice what Trump had paid for it three years earlier; check out the Deripaska and Rybolovlev name filter entries on the Timeline), met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Here’s a complete list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

MARCH 30-31, 2016: Gates Seeks Proposals For Social Medial Manipulation Campaign

AUG. 3, 2016: Don Jr. Meets With Emissary From Saudi Arabia and UAE (revision of previous entry)

FEB. 20, 2017: Russian Ambassador to UN Dies Suddenly

FEB. 16, 2018: Grand Jury Indicts Internet Research Agency and Russian Nationals; Pinedo Plea Agreement Released (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 8, 2018: Hicks Joins Fox

OCT. 8, 2018: Rosenstein Gets Reprieve

OCT. 11, 2018: Simpson Reaffirms Refusal to Testify

OCT. 14, 2018: Trump on 60 Minutes: Blasts Sessions; Denies Collusion; Equivocates on Whether He’ll Shut Down Mueller

On March 30, 2017, Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent with expertise in Russian influence operations, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that following the money behind disinformation websites aimed at undermining American democracy was important. But, he continued, the committee should also “follow the trail of dead Russians.”

Last week, another body got added to the pile. Here’s the pertinent new entry on the Trump-Russia Timeline:

OCT. 3, 2018: Kremlin Lawyer Dies in Helicopter Crash

Russian deputy attorney general Saak Albertovich Karapetyan dies when his helicopter crashes in a forest during an unauthorized evening flight that began in adverse conditions. Karapetyan, 58, had been intimately familiar with some of the most notorious operations carried out under Vladimir Putin’s orders, according to The Daily Beast. He had worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya and was involved in running some of Moscow’s most high-profile efforts to thwart international investigations into Russia’s alleged crimes. For example, Karapetyan had signed a letter from the Russian government refusing to help the US in a civil case linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky. Leaked emails have since shown that Veselnitskaya had helped draft the document sent with that letter.

Several more Timeline entries fit Watts’ frightening theme:

NOV. 8, 2016: Russian Consulate Official Declared Dead

Russian-born Sergei Krivov, 63, is duty commander involved with security affairs at the Russian consulate in New York City when he dies mysteriously. At first, Russian officials say Krivov fell from the roof of the consulate building. Then they say he died of a heart attack. The initial police report filed on the day of the incident says Krivov had “an unknown trauma to the head.”

EARLY DECEMBER 2016: Russians Arrest Cybersecurity Expert

The arrests, according to reports by the Russian newspaper Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta, among others, are made in early December and amount to a purge of the cyberwing of the FSB, the main Russian intelligence and security agency.

DEC. 26, 2016: Russian Intelligence Officer Found Dead

Oleg Erovinkin, 61, is found dead in his car. He had been a general in the KGB and its successor spy organization, the FSB, before Putin appointed him chief of staff to Igor Sechin, president of Russia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

FEB. 20, 2017: Russian Ambassador to UN Dies Suddenly (this entry will be added in next week’s Timeline update)

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, 64, dies while at work in his New York office. The cause of death is not disclosed. In 1987, Churkin had helped to arrange Trump’s first visit to Moscow.

MARCH 2, 2017: Russian Behind Ukraine Meeting Dies

Alex Oronov, 69, a Ukrainian émigré businessman in New York, dies. “The cause of his death remains unknown,” USA Today reports in May. He reportedly had organized the January 2017 meeting among Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, Felix Sater, and Ukrainian parliament member Andrey Artemenko at the Manhattan Loews Regency Hotel about a peace plan for Ukraine.

MARCH 21, 2017: Magnitsky’s Lawyer Suffers Severe Injuries

Nikolai Gorokhov, 53, is near death with severe head injuries and remains in a hospital’s intensive care unit. Reportedly, he fell from the fourth floor of his Moscow apartment. Gorokhov is a private Russian lawyer who represents the family of Sergey Magnitsky and has continued work to uncover the tax fraud first identified by Magnitsky. After regaining consciousness, Gorokhov can’t recall what happened to cause his injuries, but he thinks he may have been targeted.

MAY 14, 2017: Peter Smith Found Dead

Ten days after telling The Wall Street Journal about his efforts to obtain Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails during the 2016 election campaign, longtime GOP operative Peter Smith, 81, is found dead in a Rochester, MN hotel room. Around his head is plastic bag attached tightly with black rubber bands. In a note recovered at the scene, Smith apologizes to authorities and states: “NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER”; “RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017”; “LIFE INSURANCE OF $5 MILLION EXPIRING.”

In his September 2016 descriptive material seeking to recruit a team to help obtain Clinton’s emails, Smith had invoked the names of Mike Flynn, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Sam Clovis.

NOV. 1-2, 2017: Mifsud Gives an Interview; Disappears

Joseph Mifsud was George Papadopoulos‘ intermediary to the Kremlin. Mifsud disappears the day after an Italian newspaper publishes his Oct. 31, 2017 interview in which he confirms that he is the unnamed person identified in Papadopoulos’ Oct. 30 guilty plea.

FEB. 18, 2018: Former Russian Troll Farm Employee Arrested

Hours after granting interviews to Western journalists, a self-confessed “troll” who formerly worked at Russia’s Internet Research Agency — which special counsel Mueller had indicted two days earlier for 2016 election interference — is arrested in St. Petersburg for allegedly making a false phone call about a bomb planted in a nearby village.

APR. 11, 2018: Trump Architect Drops Out of Sight

In an attempt to follow up on an Apr. 6, 2018 article by McClatchy highlighting special counsel Mueller’s interest in Trump Organization business deals in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Georgia, a CNBC reporter reaches out to John Fotiadis, an architect involved in some of Trump’s major foreign projects in that region. Eight hours later, Fotiadis announces on Twitter that he is closing his firm; a few days after that, he closes his Twitter account; by the end of the week, all of the content from his website, including his portfolio, has been removed.

JUL. 11, 2018: Misfud is Still Missing

Joseph Misfud is scheduled to appear in a Salerno, Italy court, but he doesn’t show up. As of October 2018, he has yet to resurface.

Others have suggested that this list of suspicious deaths and disappearances relating to Trump, Putin, and the 2016 election may not be exhaustive. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but still….

Here’s a complete list of this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline (including a new name filter and pop-up bubble for Peter Smith):

LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2016: Peter Smith Builds Team to Find Clinton Emails (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 11, 2016: GOP Operative Solicits Donors to Fund Acquisition of Clinton Emails

MAY 14, 2017: Peter Smith Found Dead (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 26, 2018: Trump Blames China for Election Interference

OCT. 1, 2018: Comey Rejects Senate Judiciary Committee Request to Testify Privately, Offers to Testify Publicly

OCT. 1, 2018: Manafort Meeting with Mueller

OCT. 1, 2018: Credico Will Invoke 5^thAmendment

OCT. 3, 2018: Kremlin Lawyer Dies in Helicopter Crash

OCT. 4, 2018: Pence Echoes Trump in Blaming China for Election Interference; Democrats Want Proof

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog — the Office of Inspector General — issued two reports confirming the worst fears about Trump’s family separation policy. Watch this two-minute video — and weep:

Kids in Cages

As Jacob Soboroff explains, one of the OIG reports looks at the big picture, documenting the lies that the Trump administration has told in an attempt to cover up the severity of the tragedy it created.

For example, by law, “unaccompanied” migrant children should be placed in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours, except in “exceptional circumstances.” The OIG report found that migrant children were routinely held longer at Border Patrol facilities. Many were held in metal cages designed only for short-term detention. More than 800 children were held for longer than the three day limit at Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso sectors. One child was detained for 25 days.

Deterring Asylum-Seekers

There’s more. As NPR reports, under the “zero tolerance” policy, the Trump administration encouraged migrants to present themselves at official ports of entry to seek asylum in the US. But at the same time, the OIG report found, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was limiting the number of asylum-seekers it would admit through those ports under a practice known as metering.

More Trump lies

NPR continues, “The watchdog report describes a chaotic process where agencies had difficulty sharing information with each other, or with distraught parents who were trying to locate their children.

“The lack of integration between electronic record systems at CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HHS made it harder to identify and track parents and children, according to the report.

“On June 23rd, DHS announced that it had ‘a central database’ that allowed DHS and HHS to share information about the locations of migrant parents and children. But the OIG report found ‘no evidence that such database exists.'”

Unpleasant Surprise for DHS

The second OIG report describes the surprise inspection of a large, privately-owned detention facility in May. It found “serious issues…that pose significant health and safety risks” at the facility, including nooses made out of sheets in detainee cells. The OIG report highlights at least seven attempted suicides at the facility. Detainees did not have timely access to medical or dental care.

This is happening in America.

Right now.

On November 6, voters will either begin the process of retrieving the nation’s soul or allow it to continue languishing in Trumpworld.

Pause on that number: 148 days.

That’s how long more than 100 kids and their families have now endured the immediate impact of Trump’s family separation policy.

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Sept. 27: 136 — 3 under age five

Of those, separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Sept. 27:   96 — 2 are under five

How much of the gradual improvement in the numbers results from kids aging out of the key statistics by celebrating their 18th (or 5th) birthdays in captivity? The government isn’t saying.

How much residual damage will the original group of almost 3,000 kids suffer for the rest of their lives? The government has no idea. But psychologists agree it’s a lot.

The Tip of a Bigger Iceberg

Trump’s family separation policy is part of larger approach that gets uglier by the day, especially as it relates to kids. From The New York Times on Sept. 30:

“In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in South Texas.

“Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases.

“But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.

“These midnight voyages are playing out across the country, as the federal government struggles to find room for more than 13,000 detained migrant children — the largest population ever — whose numbers have increased more than fivefold since last year.”

In The Dead of Night?

In an Oct. 1 follow-up article, the Times explains why these moves are occurring when the rest of the country sleeps:

“To avoid escape attempts… The children are told of the move only a few hours prior so that they do not have time to formulate an escape plan.”

The Times poses more questions with tragic answers:

“If they were already in shelters, why are they being moved?

“The shelters that are traditionally used to detain unaccompanied minors are overflowing.”

…

“How do the two types of facilities compare?

“The shelters are licensed and monitored by state child welfare agencies that impose requirements on staff hiring and training, as well as education and safety. Children in shelters receive regular schooling and are required to have access to lawyers who help develop their claims for asylum or other forms of legal immigration status.

“Conversely, the tent city is considered an “emergency shelter” and is thus unregulated, except for a loose set of guidelines crafted by the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees it. The guidelines do not require schooling, so children are given workbooks but are not obligated to fill them out. Access to legal services at the tent city is also limited.”

…

“Why is the population of detained migrant children skyrocketing?

“More than 13,000 migrant children are currently detained — the highest number yet and a fivefold increase since last year. That is mostly because fewer children are being released to live with sponsors than ever before. Sponsors — usually relatives or family friends — tend to be undocumented immigrants, and policies introduced by the Trump administration have made it easier for immigration authorities to find and arrest potential sponsors who come forward to claim a child. As a result, some potential sponsors have stopped coming forward out of fear. Those who come forward anyway are having to wait longer because of added red tape.”

…

“How much does it cost to care for the children?

“The latest estimates from Congress suggest that it costs about $750 a day to house a child in the tent city — about three times as much as the cost of a single placement in a shelter — even though conditions there are comparatively austere.”

Savvy businessman, that Trump.

One of the darkest chapters in American history continues to play out in plain sight, but sometimes the worst acts are occurring in the dead of night.

Brett Kavanaugh dominated the news, but when media attention returns to Trump-Russia, some of last week’s events could loom pretty large in that story, especially those relating to Erik Prince and Roger Stone. Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline, click on their names, and see for yourself.

Here’s a list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

AROUND JUNE 23, 2016: Russian-American With Ties to Kremlin-Linked Officials Begins Making Donations to Trump Campaign

JAN. 11, 2017: Prince Meets With Putin Associate in the Seychelles (revision of previous entry)

OCT. 12, 2017: House Threatens to Subpoena Stone (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 30, 2017: Stone Says Credico Was WikiLeaks Intermediary, Privately Offers to Help Credico

SEPT. 25, 2018: Trump Cites Lindsey Graham

SEPT. 25, 2018: House Republicans Plan to Subpoena McCabe Memos; Seek Testimony From Comey, Lynch, Yates, Papadopoulos

SEPT. 27, 2018: House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas More FBI Documents

SEPT. 28, 2018: Simpson Refuses House Interview Request; Gets Subpoena

SEPT. 28, 2018: House Votes to Release Some Transcripts

141 DAYS AND COUNTING…

The slow pace of the Trump government’s response to family reunifications is tragic:

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Sept. 13: 211 — 6 under age five

As of Sept. 20: 182 — 6 under age five

Of those, separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Sept. 13: 165 — 5 are under five

As of Sept. 20: 141 — 5 are under five

Closing the Borders

Last week, Trump launched a new attack on legal immigration to the United States.  From The New York Times:

“President Trump plans to cap the number of refugees that can be resettled in the United States next year at 30,000, his administration announced on Monday, further cutting an already drastically scaled-back program that offers protection to foreigners fleeing violence and persecution…

“The number represents the lowest ceiling a president has placed on the refugee program since its creation in 1980, and a reduction of a third from the 45,000-person limit that Mr. Trump set for 2018.

“The move is the latest in a series of efforts the president has made to clamp down on immigration to the United States, not only through cracking down on those who seek to enter the country illegally, but by making it more difficult to gain legal entry.”

There’s More

Trump is also seeking to add more limitations on otherwise lawful immigration to the US. The Washington Post reports, “[T]the foreign born population uses public benefits at virtually the same rate as native-born Americans.” Nevertheless, “the Trump administration will make it much more difficult for immigrants to come to the United States or remain in the country if they use or are likely to use housing vouchers, food subsidies and other ‘non-cash’ forms of public assistance, under a new proposal announced Saturday by the Department of Homeland Security…

“[T]the proposed changes amount to a broad expansion of the government’s ability to deny visas or residency to immigrants if they or members of their household benefit from subsidies like Medicaid programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Section 8 housing vouchers.”

Who gets hurt? Kids and their families:

“’This would force families — including citizen children — to choose between getting the help they need and remaining in their communities,’ said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. ‘The last thing the federal government should do is punish families that have fallen on hard times for feeding their children or keeping a roof over their heads and avoiding homelessness.’”

To Stop Stephen Miller, Dethrone Trump

The principal architect of Trump’s immigration policies is Stephen Miller. If his policies had existed in 1903, Miller’s great-grandparents would not have gained entry into the United States: “While Miller has advocated for limiting legal immigration to individuals who speak English and would ‘assimilate’ easily,” according to Business Insider, “his great-grandmother spoke only Yiddish when she arrived in the US.”

As for Miller’s boss: “Trump is the son, and grandson, of immigrants: German on his father’s side, and Scottish on his mother’s. None of his grandparents, and only one of his parents, was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue.”

Calling America as a nation of immigrants isn’t rhetoric. it’s real.

If you blinked, you might have missed the most important Trump-Russia story of last week: Former top Trump adviser K. T. McFarland “revised” her prior statement to federal investigators. McFarland’s revision — acknowledging a prior misstatement only after Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn revealed her earlier lie — could have landed many people in prison. For now, she may have dodged that bullet.

But remember this caveat applicable to any news report about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: The underlying leaks aren’t coming from Mueller’s team. In other words, the latest report about McFarland’s “revision” — which suggests that she is not a target of Mueller’s investigation — merits just a bit of skepticism.

The Flynn/McFarland Timeline

McFarland’s situation proves that flipping Flynn posed a very big problem for Trump. Here’s a brief summary of highlights that emerge when applying the McFarland and Flynn name filters simultaneously to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

Nov. 25, 2016: Trump names McFarland — a senior member of his transition team — to become deputy national security adviser, reporting to NSA-designate Mike Flynn.

Dec. 28-29, 2016: President Obama imposes new sanctions against Russia for election interference, and Flynn has a series of communications about them with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn tells Kislyak that he hopes Russia will not escalate the situation.

Dec. 30, 2016: Putin announces that he will not retaliate in response to the new sanctions.

Dec. 31, 2016: After speaking with Kislyak, Flynn transmits the good news about Russia’s restraint to “senior members” of Trump’s transition team, most of whom are meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. At the center of those Flynn-transition team communications is K. T. McFarland. McFarland’s contemporaneous email exchanges on the subject go to chief of staff-designate Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer.

Jan. 4, 2017: Flynn and his attorney inform transition team counsel and White House counsel-designate Don McGahn that Flynn is under federal investigation.

Jan. 13, 2017: McFarland calls The Washington Post to rebut its story that Flynn had multiple conversations with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016 — the day President Obama had announced new sanctions against Russia for interfering with the US election. Her memory of her interactions with Flynn around that time were vivid, she says. And, McFarland insists, Flynn did not discuss the subject of sanctions with Kislyak.

Jan. 13, 2017: Responding to questions about Flynn’s December 28-29, 2016 communications with Kislyak, press secretary-designate Spicer says that Flynn had only one conversation with Kislyak and it related to logistics for a Trump-Putin call after the inauguration.

Jan. 15, 2017: Mike Pence, who chaired Trump’s transition team, tells a national television audience that Mike Flynn’s communications with Kislyak had nothing to do with sanctions.

Jan. 22, 2017: Spicer reiterates that none of Flynn’s December 28-29, 2016 conversations with Kislayk touched on sanctions against Russia.

Jan. 24, 2017: In an interview with the FBI, Flynn denies discussing sanctions with Kislyak on December 28-29, 2016.

Jan. 26, 2017: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informs White House counsel McGahn that Flynn lied to the FBI about his December 2016 conversations with Kislyak.

Feb. 8, 2017: Flynn again denies talking to Kislyak about sanctions on Dec. 28-29, 2016.

Feb. 9, 2017: Flynn now says he can’t be sure that the subject of sanctions did not come up in his December conversations with Kislyak.

Feb. 13, 2017: Flynn resigns.

Feb. 14, 2017: Trump tells FBI director James Comey that he hopes Comey can see his way clear to “letting Flynn go.”

Now Focus On McFarland

Summer 2017: FBI agents question McFarland about her knowledge of Flynn’s Dec. 28-29, 2016 communications with Kislyak concerning the new sanctions against Russia. McFarland denies ever talking to Flynn about sanctions.

Dec. 1, 2017: Flynn pleads guilty to lying to federal investigators about his conversations with Kislyak regarding sanctions. Not only does Flynn admit to having such discussions on Dec. 28-29, 2016, but he also says that he spoke with a “senior official of the presidential transition team” about them. Reports identify McFarland as that senior official.

Shortly after Dec. 1, 2017: Federal investigators circle back to McFarland about her knowledge of the Flynn-Kislyak sanctions discussions on Dec. 28-29, 2016. This time, rather than reassert her earlier denial of any awareness of such discussions, she says that Flynn’s general statement to her that things were going to be okay could have been a reference to sanctions.

Feb. 2, 2018: After Trump nominates McFarland to become US ambassador to Singapore, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says that she must resolve the discrepancies between her earlier statements denying any awareness of the Flynn-Kislyak discussions with her emails and other facts set forth in Flynn’s guilty plea — all of which suggest she knew that Flynn and Kislyak were discussing sanctions on Dec. 28-29, 2016. McFarland withdraws her nomination.

Potentially prominent catches in McFarland’s tangled web: Reince Priebus, Don McGahn, Steve Bannon (who received copies of forwarded McFarland emails), Mike Pence.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 5, 2016: Steele Contacts FBI About His Trump Findings; They Languish in FBI NY Office for Weeks (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 13, 2017: K. T. McFarland Calls WaPo to Rebut Column on Flynn

SUMMER 2017: FBI Agents Question K.T. McFarland

SHORTLY AFTER DEC. 1, 2017: K.T. McFarland Walks Back Denial

FEB. 2, 2018: McFarland Withdraws Nomination

THROUGHOUT SEPTEMBER 2018: Cohen Talks to Mueller, NY State Authorities

NEW: SEPT. 7, 2018: Credico Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury; Corsi Initially Bows Out, But Appears Two Weeks Later (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 17, 2018: Trump Orders Russia Investigation Material Declassified; Warner Concerned About Trump Pursuing Vendettas, Undermining Russia Investigation, Compromising Intelligence Sources

SEPT. 17, 2018: Flynn Ready for Sentencing Hearing

SEPT. 17, 2018: Trump Tweets About Strzok and Lisa Page

SEPT. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About FISA Warrants

SEPT. 18, 2018: Trump Blasts Mueller’s Team and Sessions: ‘I Don’t Have an Attorney General’

SEPT. 19, 2018: Stone Associate Declines to Testify Before Senate Intelligence Committee

SEPT. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets Soften His Earlier Declassification Order

SEPT. 21, 2018: NY Times: Rosenstein Wanted To ‘Tape’ Trump; Washington Post,Politico, ABC, NBC, CBS: Rosenstein Was Joking

After Paul Manafort‘s guilty plea, the media’s principal focus was the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting that he attended with Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. But Manafort’s insights into what transpired at that meeting could be among his least significant contributions to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

To understand the breadth and depth of the problems that Manafort’s cooperation could now pose for Trump, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, Roger Stone and others, use the Trump-Russia Timeline name filter and click on Manafort’s name. In getting Manafort to flip, Mueller has pulled the thread on a sweater that could leave Trump and his closest loyalists naked.

Rudy Strikes Again

Among this week’s entries relating to Manafort’s deal, my personal favorite is Rudy Giuliani’s statement, followed immediately by his effort to walk it back:

“Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.”

Minutes later, Trump’s legal team issued a revised statement, saying, “The President did noting wrong”, deleting the phrase “and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.”

Second place goes to Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.”

Earlier in the week, Giuliani said that the Trump and Manafort legal teams had a joint defense agreement whereby they shared information about Mueller’s probe. If Rudy used that communication line to dangle the prospect of pardoning Manafort, things could get far more interesting for Giuliani — and not in a good way.

In Watergate, more than two dozen lawyers learned the hard way that obstruction of justice laws apply to them, too.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 9, 2015: Butina Tries to Meet Trump

JULY 11, 2015: Butina Asks Trump About Sanctions at Rally (revision of previous entry)

 JULY 14, 2015: Torshin Asks Butina for Info about ‘Political Candidate 1’ (revision of previous entry)

JUNE 22, 2016: ‘US Person 1’ Suggests Language for Butina Report to Torshin

SEPT. 11 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Zero’ Collusion (Except For Clinton’s Collusion With Russia, ‘Foreign Spies’, FBI, and DOJ); Attacks Strzok, Page, Comey, DOJ, Russia Investigation

SEPT. 11-12, 2018: Judge Postpones Manafort Pretrial Hearing; Trump Lawyers Talking to Manafort Lawyers

SEPT. 12, 2018: Trump Tweets He Engaged in No Wrongdoing, No Collusion

SEPT. 12, 2018: Trump Signs Executive Order on Sanctions; Generates Immediate Bipartisan Criticism

SEPT. 14, 2018: Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller

SEPT. 14, 2018: Giuliani Responds – Then Revises Response – to Manafort Plea

SEPT. 15-16, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘Rigged Russian Witch Hunt’, ‘Highly Conflicted Bob Mueller’, ’17 Angry Democrats’, ‘Russian Hoax’, ‘Illegal Mueller Witch Hunt’

Paul Manafort’s plea deal, Hurricane Florence’s destruction, and the controversy surrounding US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are displacing coverage of what may be the defining tragedy of the Trump administration: America has created orphans.

Here’s the latest report on the families that Trump separated at the border and that a federal court ordered reunited more than two months ago.

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Sept. 13: 211 — 6 under age five

Of the 211, the number of kids still separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Sept. 13: 165 — 5 are under five

Even when the government makes little or no substantive progress toward reunification, the passage of time appears to help its performance metrics. For example, as children turn 18, they age out of the “child” category and move to Justice Department detention centers. Likewise, as kids reach their fifth birthdays, the “under age five” group shrinks.

While holding the government’s feet to the fire, the ACLU is doing what it can to help solve the problem that Trump created.

Trump’s Counterproductive Immigration Policy

The law of unintended consequences is also taking its toll. From The New York Times last week:

“Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded — a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States.

“Population levels at federally contracted shelters for migrant children have quietly shot up more than fivefold since last summer, according to data obtained by The New York Times, reaching a total of 12,800 this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017.

“The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests. Some of those who work in the migrant shelter network say the bottleneck is straining both the children and the system that cares for them.”

As Trump’s policy deters relatives and family friends in America from sponsoring children, the kids remain in federal custody.

Welcome to Trump’s America.

In the clamor over Bob Woodward’s new book, an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times, and George Papadopoulos’s media tour following his 14-day sentence for lying to the FBI about his 2016 contacts with Russia while a member of the Trump campaign, an important Trump-Russia story got lost: the continuing saga of Maria Butina.

In a brief objecting to Butina’s request to review her bond (and get out of jail pending trial), federal prosecutors provided more details about her efforts to use the NRA and conservative religious organizations as vehicles for pushing pro-Russia policies to particular Republican presidential candidates and the party generally.

Here’s the punchline: In the seven weeks since Butina’s detention hearing on July 18, 2018, the Russian government has conducted six consular visits with Butina and passed four diplomatic notes in her favor to the US Department of State (more notes than for any other Russian citizen imprisoned in the US in the past year). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo twice to complain about Butina’s prosecution, the Kremlin Twitter account has changed its avatar to Butina’s face, and RT, Russia’s government-funded television network has published numerous articles on its website criticizing Butina’s prosecution and detention.

The 29-year-old former owner of a Siberian furniture store is generating a lot of interest from Russians in high places. Watch this space.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 14, 2015: Torshin Asks Butina for Info about Trump

APRIL 23-28, 2016: Torshin Gives Butina Another Task

SEPT. 1-3, 2018: Trump’s Anger Turns to Wray

SEPT. 4, 2018: Trump Denies Calling Sessions ‘Mentally Retarded’ and a ‘Dumb Southerner’

SEPT. 5, 2018: Anonymous Insider Pens Op-Ed on Trump’s Danger

SEPT. 5, 2018: UK Charges Two Russians in Poisoning

SEPT. 7, 2018: Credico Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury; Corsi Bows Out

SEPT. 7, 2018: Papadopoulos Sentenced; Trump Reacts

SEPT. 7, 2018: Papadopoulos Breaks Silence; Implicates Sessions

SEPT. 7, 2018: Russia Wants Butina Released

SEPT. 9, 2018: Papadopoulos Says Sessions Was ‘Quite Enthusiastic’ About Trump-Putin Meeting, Kept Campaign Informed

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

As of Aug. 23: 528 — 23 are under age of five

As of Aug. 30: 497 — 22 are under age five

As of Sept. 4: 416 — 14 are under age five

Kids separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Aug. 16: 366

As of Aug. 23: 343 — six are under five

As of Aug. 30: 322 — six are under five

As of Sept. 4:  304 — six are under five

The government now says 199 parents have “indicated desire against reunification,” but it’s becoming clearer that many of those parents were coerced or misled into such “indications.”

Consider this short video clip that puts a name with one of the 199 parents who gave up their kids. It’s the story of a Guatemalan detainee who signed the paper that the government gave him. He hasn’t seen his 15-year-old son in months. But now that he’s armed with a lawyer, he’s headed toward a court hearing on his asylum claim.

You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse?

A decades-old consent order settling the Flores case imposed time limits for detaining children of undocumented immigrants. That created a problem for Trump’s new zero-tolerance policy.

As The New York Times reports, “The big dilemma facing the administration is what to do about adults who illegally cross the border with children. Families in such cases are typically placed in federally run detention centers that are outfitted to house children and adults together, but [under the Flores order], they can only be held there for up to 20 days.”

Here’s the rub: hearings for the adults facing deportation can take months. Trump’s zero-tolerance policy addressed the Flores dilemma by separating families. Parents went into Justice Department detention centers (jails); kids went into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

When public uproar caused Trump to rescind his zero-tolerance policy, he required Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ask the Flores judge to remove the 20-day time limit for detaining children. That effort failed, so now Trump is doing an end run around the Flores order.

On Sept. 6, 2018, the government proposed new rules that would allow it to detain families indefinitely. The Times continues, “The government said it would develop a network of licensed facilities that can humanely shelter migrant families in the months or longer it takes for their deportation or asylum cases to be heard. But it provided scant details on how the facilities would operate, or why the new plan might pass muster with the court when previous attempts to ease limits on migrant children detention have not.”

A Sad Refrain for America

Ironically, in June 2018, the US Supreme Court repudiated the notorious Korematsu decision, which upheld World War II Japanese internment camps. History may not repeat itself, but it may be on the way to rhyming again.

Trump’s newest target is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Bob Woodward. But for the last month, he focused his ire on a distinguished but relatively unknown 27-year career attorney at the Justice Department. And Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has aided and abetted the assault.

The attorney is Bruce Ohr, and this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline adds him to the Timeline’s name filter, along with a descriptive “pop-up” bubble. The Ohr filter reveals method in Trump’s apparent madness as he seeks to neutralize yet another important player in the Trump-Russia picture.

As for Nunes, clicking on his Timeline name filter produces entries that reveal why he has tried to kill the Trump-Russia investigation from the outset. With respect to Ohr, Nunes recently went to London seeking help on the Steele-Ohr front from British intelligence heads. Fortunately for the US, they didn’t oblige him.

Why Ohr? The Bottom Line 

When Trump and complicit Republican members of Congress first dragged Bruce Ohr into their assault on the Justice Department and the FBI, it looked like just another distraction aimed at discrediting special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. In fact, far more could be at stake for Trump.

Ohr’s investigative experience makes him an interesting resource on the connections between the Russian mob, Vladimir Putin, and the 2016 election. And Craig Unger’s new best-seller, House of Trump, House of Putin, puts many of those connections dangerously close to Trump’s doorstep.

Roll the tape

The current Trump-GOP narrative is that Bruce Ohr’s contacts with Christopher Steele were part of a vast conspiracy to undermine Trump’s presidential candidacy. The undisputed facts now refute that narrative. They also reveal why Trump has a special interest in squelching Ohr.

1991: Ohr becomes an assistant US attorney in Manhattan. Coincidentally, the office’s jurisdiction includes the Trump Organization, which is headquartered there. In 1999, Ohr moves to the Justice Department headquarters in Washington where he specializes in combating the growing influence of the Russian mob internationally. Among Ohr’s special topics of concern: organized crime and money laundering.

2007: For the first time, Ohr meets Christopher Steele, who runs the MI6 Russia desk for British intelligence. Like Ohr, Steele is concerned about the growing international impact of the Russian mob. For years, they continue working together on that common enemy. Their common pursuit has nothing to do with Trump’s presidential campaign, which didn’t begin for another eight years.

NOVEMBER 2014: Ohr and Steele (who now heads his own private investigation firm) discuss the possibility of persuading Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to become an informant on Russian organized crime. Again, that is before Trump announces his presidential bid in June 2015.

SEPTEMBER 2015: Ohr and other American officials meet with Deripaska, who rebuffs their recruiting effort.

JULY 2016: Steele tells Ohr that his sources say Russian intelligence has Trump “over a barrel,” presumably meaning that the Russians have compromising material on Trump. But Ohr doesn’t pass along that information to his supervisors, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, because Ohr regards it as inflammatory raw source material. Meanwhile, wholly apart from anything Steele has provided, the FBI has already opened a counterintelligence investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. George Papadopoulos’ statements to an Australian diplomat in May had started that ball rolling.

SEPTEMBER 2016: The FBi again tries unsuccessfully to persuade Deripaska to become an informant — this time on the connections between Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Putin.

AFTER THANKSGIVING 2016: On Oct. 31, 2016, The New York Times runs a story with this headline: “Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia.” It causes Steele to become concerned that the FBI has not taken his research seriously. After turning first to the press, which breaks the story on what would become the “Steele dossier,” Steele meets with Ohr to discuss his troublesome findings on Trump and Russia.

DEC. 9, 2016: Sen, John McCain (R-AZ) personally delivers a copy of the “Steele dossier” to FBI director James Comey.

Flash forward to August 2018:

— Deripaska is personally subject to US sanctions against Russia.

— Manafort is convicted, faces a second Mueller trial on even more charges, and Trump dangles prospect of pardoning him.

— Ohr becomes Trump’s newest target and the subject of his relentless personal attacks. Trump’s most faithful congressional servant, Nunes, is traveling to London, trying to dig up what he can on Steele and Ohr. Craig Unger releases his new book that outlines the decades-long connections among Trump, Putin’s government, the Russian mob, and Russian money laundering through US real estate.

Something worth remembering about the “Steele dossier”: Many of its most significant findings have now been corroborated. Whether, as the dossier suggests, Putin has a “pee tape” may be the least of Trump’s concerns.

One More Thing…

The biggest underreported story of the week is a line in the Aug. 31, 2018 sentencing memo that George Papadopoulos‘ attorneys submitted on his behalf. At the March 31, 2016 meeting of Trump’s national security team, Papadopoulos said he could arrange a direct meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin:

“Trump nodded with approval and deferred to [Jeff] Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.”

That’s not what Trump has been telling the country for two years. And it’s not what Sessions told the Congress. But the country needs Sessions to remain in place. His recusal put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Rosenstein is committed to protecting the probe; Trump wants to kill it.

There’s no way to overstate the perilous position of American democracy at this moment. Before things get better, they will get worse. Bigly.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

2007: Steele Meets Ohr

NOV. 21, 2014: Steele and Ohr Discuss Cultivating Deripaska

SUMMER 2015: Papadopoulos Seeks Position in Trump Campaign

SEPTEMBER 2015: Ohr Meets With Deripaska

JANUARY TO MARCH 2016: Carson Campaign Ends; Papadopoulos Renews Request to Work on Trump Campaign

FEBRUARY 2016: Steele Emails Ohr About Deripaska

REVISED: MARCH 31, 2016: Trump Meets With Foreign Policy Advisers (revision of previous entry)

DELETED ENTRY: SPRING 2016: Papadopoulos Presents His Trump Credentials to Foreign Leaders [Superseded by new May 4, 2016 and May 27, 2016 entries below]

MAY 4, 2016: Papadopoulos Tells British Prime Minister to Apologize

MAY 27, 2016: When Putin Arrives in Athens, Papadopoulos Is Already There (revision of previous entry)

JULY 30, 2016: Steele Tells Ohr: Russia Has Trump ‘Over a Barrel’; Carter Page Not Being Candid

SEPTEMBER 2016: FBI Agents Ask Deripaska About Manafort

SOMETIME IN AUGUST 2018: Nunes Seeks British Intelligence Info on Steele and Ohr

AUG. 16, 2018: Manafort Jury Deliberations Begin, Along with Negotiations to Resolve Charges in His Upcoming Trial

AUG. 21, 2018: Manafort Convicted; Cohen Pleads Guilty, Implicates Trump, Has More to Say on Russia (revision of previous entry)

AUG. 27, 2018: Trump Continues to Raise Possibility of Pardon

AUG. 28, 2018: Manafort’s 2^ndTrial Delayed

AUG. 28, 2018: Trump Attacks Brennan and Comey

AUG. 28, 2018: Ohr Testifies in Closed-Door Session

AUG. 28-29, 2018: Trump Repeats False Story About China Hacks Into Clinton’s Private Email Server; FBI Responds

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks Clinton, Obama, DNC

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Tweets McGahn’s Departure Without Telling McGahn

AUG. 29, 2018: Manafort Seeks to Move 2^ndTrial to Roanoke, VA

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks Ohr

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks CNN; Bernstein Pushes Back

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Continues to Attack Ohr, ‘Steele Dossier’

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Blasts CNN, Launches False Accusation Against NBC’s Lester Holt

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Responds to Reports About McGahn’s Departure, ‘Rigged Russia Witch Hunt’

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Attacks Comey, Ohr

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Calls Mueller’s Investigation “Illegal”; Blasts Ohr, Strzok, Lisa Page, Comey, FBI; Implies Sessions’ Days May Be Numbered

AUG. 31, 2018: Ex-Kilimnik Associate Pleads Guilty

SEPT. 1 2018: Trump Attacks DOJ, FBI , ‘Steele Dossier’, Mueller, and More