WHERE ARE THE KIDS? 

Here’s the latest report on what Trump and the complicit GOP mean when they say, “Make America Great Again”:

— Total number of children that the government separated from their families at the border: 2,654

— Children no longer in government custody because they were reunited with parents: 1,616

How about the remaining 1,038?

— Discharged “under other appropriate circumstances” (including kids who helped the government’s statistical count by turning 18 and dropping out of the reunification program): 473

— Still in government custody: 565

Of the 565:

— “Adult presently outside the US” (i.e., US government deported them without their kids): 366

— “Parent indicated a desire against reunification” (includes a “significant number of parents the outside US”): 154

In that final group — “parent indicated a desire against reunification” — the government attempts to bury a multitude of sins. According to the ACLU, the distribution of paperwork to migrant parents in a “coercive and misleading manner” created a chaotic reunification process. In some cases, parents who could not speak or understand English signed documents thinking they were facilitating reunification when, in fact, they were waiving those rights.

And those in the penultimate group — 366 kids with parents “presently outside the US” — are a problem the country, too. According to a recent ACLU filing, some of those parents were misled or coerced into waiving their international human rights to seek asylum in return for assurances that reunification would proceed more quickly. The government then deported them without their kids

The enduring stain remains: The United States of America captured families at the border, took the kids, and deported the parents. We’re 104 days into that hostage crisis.

World history has few parallels to such action by a supposedly civilized nation. They’re not pretty.

Reminder: Where are the kids? It’s Kids Held Hostage Day 98.

When it comes to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Trump has never behaved as an innocent man would. He’s getting worse. Even on vacation, he couldn’t shed his unrelenting fear that the Trump-Russia probe is leading to an unhappy ending (for him).

August 6:

August 9:

August 10:

August 11:

August 12:

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but last week special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing interest in Roger Stone became even clearer. Several of Stone’s associates have received subpoenas from Mueller’s grand jury. Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on Roger Stone’s name to discover why he’s in jeopardy. For Trump, he could be a harbinger of bad things to come.

By the way, the Maria Butina storyline remains intriguing. On Aug. 6, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) went to Moscow (with a letter from Trump for delivery to Putin). He met with Russian leaders who wanted to talk about Butina’s release. For a 29-year-old student who just finished her Master’s degree program at American University, she sure is attracting a lot of attention from her fellow Russians in high places.

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

MAY 11, 2016: Scavino Tweets About Clinton E-mails

JULY 30, 2018: Nunes Says Majority GOP in Congress Must Protect Trump; Impeaching Rosenstein Is a Matter of Timing

AUG. 6, 2018: Trump Tweets About Clinton ‘Collusion’

AUG. 6, 2018: Rand Paul in Moscow with Letter from Trump to Putin; Russians Want Butina Released

AUG. 6, 2018: Rand Paul in Moscow with Letter from Trump to Putin; Russians Want Butina Released

AUG. 8, 2018: Trump Belatedly Imposes Sanctions

AUG. 9, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Clinton & the Democrats Colluded’, ‘Rigged Witch Hunt’, ‘FBI Thought They Wouldn’t Get Caught’

AUG. 9, 2018: Mueller Subpoenas Credico

AUG. 10, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘No Evidence to Launch’ Collusion Investigation

AUG. 10, 2018: Former ‘Manhattan Madam’ Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury

AUG. 10, 2018: Stone Associate Found in Contempt

AUG. 10, 2018: Giuliani and Sekulow Guest Host for Hannity

AUG. 11, 2018: Trump Tweets About McCabe, Comey, Strzok, Lisa Page, Sessions, Steele, Ohr, DOJ; Threatens To Get Involved with FBI

AUG. 12, 2018: Trump Attacks Mueller, DOJ, and FBI

On Nov. 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages — including 66 Americans. Four days later, ABC News launched “America Held Hostage: The Iran Crisis” — a breaking news program competing with the first half-hour of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on NBC and The CBS Late Movie. The program also launched host Ted Koppel’s career to a new level. As the crisis continued, the program opened with a running total of the passing days:

“America held hostage: Day —”

On Day 444, the crisis ended with the release of the last American hostages shortly after President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981.

Kids Held Hostage: Day 97

All of the American hostages in Iran were adults. For months now, Trump’s zero tolerance policy has been victimizing children. Beginning in late April 2018, the US government took more than 2,500 children from their parents. It still holds more than 550 of them — almost 10 times the number of Americans held hostage in Iran four decades ago.

Where’s the outrage? Where’s the sense of urgency?

If a foreign government had done to American children what our country has done to the kids whom the US government has separated from their parents at the southwest border, the media would be screaming the accumulating days of captivity. The count wouldn’t stop until all of the children had been released and reunited with their families.

Using May 7, 2018 — the date Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Trump’s new zero tolerance policy without any plan to protect the innocent children it affected — today is “Kids Held Hostage: Day 97″ for some of the victims.

Violating Court Order: Day 17

Another family separation benchmark is July 26, 2018. That was the Court-ordered deadline for reunification of the immigrants’ kids with their families. Today is Day 17 of the government’s ongoing violation of that order.

The Kids

Every day brings a new revelation that worsens the family separation story. Last week, the ACLU said that it believes US Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) deliberately withheld — for more than a month — 400-plus phone numbers of parents who were separated from their kids. That contact information could have helped to reunite many of the families. Meanwhile, here’s a summary of the government’s latest status report on the kids and its proposed plan for dealing with them:

— 559 remain in government custody

— Parents of 386 kids have been deported

— Government wants ACLU to determine if parents want their kids back

— Government proposes reunification only in the parents’ home country

The Tip of an Ugly Trump Iceberg

The last item in the government’s plan — reunification only in the parents’ home country — was a tell. Last week, it became clear that Trump is expanding his attack on immigrants to include their international human right to seek asylum.

On Aug. 7, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of 12 immigrants — eight women, one man, and three children — challenging the Justice Department’s June 2018 policy changes aimed at limiting those asylum rights and expediting deportations. Two of the children and their mothers in the suit had already been deported.

Attorneys for the ACLU and the Justice Department had agreed to delay removal proceedings for the remaining mother and her child so they could argue the matter before US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on Aug. 9. While participating in that hearing by phone from her office in California, the lead ACLU attorney received an email saying that the mother and daughter were being deported. During a brief recess, she told her colleagues that the pair had been taken from a family detention center in Dilley, TX to the airport in San Antonio for a morning flight back to El Salvador.

The judge was not pleased.

After being informed of the situation, he granted the ACLU’s request to delay deportations for the mother and daughter, as well as the other plaintiffs in the suit. And he ordered the government to “turn the plane around” to bring the mother and her child back to the US. He also threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt if it didn’t.

“This is pretty outrageous,” Judge Sullivan said. “That someone seeking justice in US court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?”

“I’m not happy about this at all,” the judge continued. “This is not acceptable.”

WHERE ARE THE KIDS?

Still asking.

Never forget the children whom Trump separated from their families at the border. They won’t forget the experience. And some of them will never see their parents again.

***

DON’T BURY THE LEDE

This week’s key update in the Trump-Russia Timeline is Trump’s tweet on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018:

That’s a multi-purpose admission. Let’s count the ways:

— Trump and his enablers have said repeatedly that the primary purpose of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting was to discuss Russian adoptions. Those were lies.

— “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent” from Russia to help Trump win the 2016 election. That’s a crime.

— In July 2017, when confronted with reporters from The New York Times preparing to run the first story about the June 9 meeting, Trump dictated a statement for his son to use as a response. It was a lie.

— Trump’s enablers — notably his attorney Jay Sekulow — repeated the lies on national television. So did Mike Pence, Don Jr., Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, and others in a long list of Trump enablers.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week on Aug. 5, 2018, Sekulow tried to explain away his misstatements of a year earlier as the result of “bad information.” Who gave Sekulow that “bad information”? All lying roads lead to Trump.

As I’ve said previously, the Trump-Russia scandal and subsequent efforts to cover it up are putting Trump’s lawyers in need of their own attorneys. Prediction: As in Watergate, some Trump enablers with law degrees will go to jail.

Monumentally toxic clients have that gift. It keeps on giving.

Use the Timeline for Context

Trump’s Aug. 5, 2018 admission provides an opportunity to explore another feature of the Trump-Russia Timeline. The name filter sorts entries relevant to a particular person (or persons — you can click on multiple names at the same time). That’s one helpful feature. But additionally, for events such as the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the July 2017 cover-up, the Timeline provides crucial context for new developments. One of those developments is Trump’s Aug. 5, 2018 admission.

CONTEXT: June 9, 2016 Meeting

Start with this entry: “JUNE 3, 2016: Don Jr. Receives Russian Offer of Info to ‘Incriminate’ Clinton.” Then proceed chronologically, reviewing each Timeline entry up to and including this one: “JUNE TO NOVEMBER 2016 “Translator Project” in Full Swing”

CONTEXT: July 2017 Cover-up

Start with this entry: “DURING THE WEEK OF JUNE 19, 2017: Trump Lawyers Reportedly Learn About Emails Relating to June 9, 2016, Meeting.” Then proceed chronologically, reviewing each Timeline entry up to and including this one: “SEPT. 7, 2017: Don Jr. Talks to Senate Judiciary Committee, Denies Telling Trump About Meeting in Advance”

Facts and context are Trump’s mortal enemies and American democracy’s greatest allies.

***

MEANWHILE, THE MARIA BUTINA THREAD UNRAVELS ANOTHER SWEATER…

As with the last update, some of the most intriguing entries in the latest update to the Trump-Russia Timeline relate to Maria Butina.

In 2011, at age 23, Butina was furniture store manager in Siberia. Living in a country with strict gun control laws, she started a gun rights organization. Before long, she connected somehow with Alexander Torshin, a close Putin ally in the upper house of the Russian parliament and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank. From 2012 to 2014, a Russian oligarch helped to fund her efforts. In 2015, Butina was hobnobbing with top leaders of the National Rifle Association when they visited Moscow. One of them, Paul Erickson, became her paramour.

By September 2016, Butina was attending dinners at the Swiss embassy where she met J. D. Gordon, who had been a national security adviser for Trump and was anticipating a spot on Trump’s transition team. He invited her to attend a concert in mid-October 2018; she agreed. That month, he invited her to his birthday party; she attended.

Go to the Timeline and click on J. D. Gordon’s name. Although underreported, he has always been an important player in the Trump-Russia Timeline. The entire world is discovering just how important.

AND THEN THERE”S THESE…

Trump’s tweet-admission and the Maria Butina story will continue to have legs. But so will these highlights from the latest update:

— Russians are continuing to attack US elections, according to the heads of US intelligence agencies. But Trump continues to ridicule assertions that Putin attacked the 2016 election — which he did — as a “hoax.” Last August, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who faces a tough re-election campaign in a state that Trump won by almost 20 points, had a personal encounter with Russia’s deadly serious cyberattacks aimed at American democracy.

— Paul Manafort‘s first trial is underway. Although his shady dealings are not likely to shape the overall Trump-Russia narrative, a few interesting nuggets are emerging. One is the magnitude of Manafort’s financial distress at the time he offered to join the Trump campaign — and work full-time without pay. And keep an eye on Rick Gates, whose future testimony relating to the larger Trump-Russia scandal could be far more damning than anything he tells the jury in Manafort’s case.

— Rudy Giuliani continues to perform his role: chief custodian of shiny objects that he and Trump deploy to attract attention and distract from Trump’s burgeoning legal problems. Giuliani has become a poster child for attorney incompetence that simultaneously undermines the rule of law. Someday, maybe the media will stop booking his TV appearances and quoting his remarks in otherwise reputable news publications.

Last but not least, Trump’s attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation have intensified in number, duration, and tone. It’s not the behavior of an innocent man. Nor are Trump’s actions consistent with a belief that he will get away with whatever he has done wrong. Trump acts as if Vladimir Putin has something on him. Ironically, even Trump himself may not know for sure what it is.

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

2011: Butina Launches Gun Rights Group in Russia

APR. 15, 2012: Torshin Promotes Butina’s Gun Rights Group; Gets Support from Oligarch

BETWEEN 2012 to 2014: Russian Oligarch Supports Butina

DECEMBER 11, 2015: NRA Leaders Meet with Wife of Butina’s Financial Backer

MARCH 10-11, 2016: Butina Works With ‘US Person 1’; Thanks ‘US Person 2’ for Helping US-Russia Relations (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 29, 2016: Trump Hires Manafort, Who Is Broke But Agrees to Work for Nothing (revision of previous entry)

SPRING 2016: Russian Attackers Infiltrate US Utilities

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

SEPT. 29, 2016: Butina Meets J. D. Gordon; Contacts Continue Through October

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

AUG. 30, 2017: Trump Attacks McCaskill in Missouri; Meanwhile, Russia Attempts to Hack Her Campaign

JULY 23, 2018: Manafort Trial Delayed to July 31

JULY 23, 2018: Trump Considers Revoking Security Clearances of Critics

JULY 24, 2018: Trump Tweets: Russia ‘Will Be Pushing Very Hard For the Democrats’ in Midterm Elections

JULY 24, 2018: Burr: ‘Sound Reasons’ for Judges to Approve FISA Warrant

JULY 24, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Witch Hunt’ in Promoting New ‘Russia Hoax’ Book

JULY 25, 2018: Trump Tweets About Cohen Tapes

JULY 25, 2018: Bolton Blames ‘Witch Hunt’ for Delaying Putin’s White House Visit

JULY 25, 2018: Eleven GOP Members of Congress Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against Rosenstein

JULY 26, 2018: Mnuchin in “Productive Discussions” to Lift Sanctions Against Rusal

JULY 26, 2018: White House Corrects Helsinki Transcript

JULY 26, 2018: Trump Organization CFO Called Before Cohen Grand Jury

JULY 26, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Witch Hunt’

JULY 27, 2018: Trump Open to Putin Invitation to Moscow

JULY 29, 2018: Trump Tweets Attack Mueller

JULY 30, 2018: Giuliani Appears to Concede Pre-Meeting ‘Strategy’ Session Before June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting, Then Walks It Back

JULY 31, 2018: Manafort’s First Trial Begins

JULY 31, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘Collusion is Not a Crime,’ But There Wasn’t Any (By Trump)

JULY 31, 2018: Deripaska’s Firm Gets Deadline Extension on Sanctions

AUG. 1, 2018: Trump Tweets That Sessions Should Terminate Mueller Investigation; Slams Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page; Sanders Doubles Down

AUG. 1, 2018: Trump Distances Himself From Manafort, But Says Feds Treat Manafort Worse Than Al Capone

AUG. 1, 2018: Trump Tweets About Book on ‘Russia Hoax’

AUG. 2, 2018: US Intel Chiefs Warn About Ongoing Russian Election Interference; Trump Then Decries ‘Russia Hoax’

AUG. 2, 2018: Bipartisan Group Proposes Tougher Russian Sanctions

AUG. 4, 2018: Hicks Travels with Trump

AUG. 5, 2018: Trump Worries and Tweets About Don Jr.

AUG. 5, 2018: Sekulow Backtracks

Where are the kids?

Keep asking the question until Trump’s government provides answers.

Then ask how and why this could happen in America.

Then vote in November to make sure it never happens again.

Meanwhile, the story worsens by the week. Chutzpah doesn’t quite capture the latest Trump move.

— The federal court’s July 26, 2018 deadline for reuniting children that the government separated from their parents at the border came and went.

— As of Aug. 3, 572 kids still remained in government custody, separated from their families.

—  The government admitted that the parents of 410 of those children reside “outside the United States,” meaning that they had likely been deported.

— The Trump administration proposed a Trumpian solution: Shift responsibility to others. Government lawyers asked the court to require that the ACLU “take the lead” in finding the “missing parents.”

Appropriately, the judge scoffed at the absurdity of that suggestion: “Many of these parents were removed from the country without their child. All of this is the result of the government’s separation and then inability and failure to track and reunite. And the reality is that for every parent who is not located there will be a permanently orphaned child. And that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration.”

100 percent.

Bad News for the Non-Orphans, Too

Even for those kids who make their way back to their families, the damage from Trump’s family separation policy will be permanent, as a recent article in The Atlantic explains:

“This kind of trauma can permanently affect the brains of these children, and potentially their long-term development, explained Colleen Kraft, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics….

“In April, Kraft and some colleagues were permitted to visit a shelter for migrant children run by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. She described seeing a room full of toddlers that was ‘eerily silent.’ That is, except for one little girl, who was ‘sobbing and wailing and beating her fists on the mat.’ A staff worker tried to comfort her with books and toys, but she wasn’t allowed to pick her up or touch her, Kraft said.

“‘This girl would stop crying if her mother was there, but we couldn’t bring her mother to her,’” Kraft said. ‘We could feel the trauma that was going on there.’

“This trauma, she explained, can permanently affect these children’s brains, especially if it occurs early in childhood. Separation from a parent induces stress hormones, which course quickly through kids’ small bodies. Parents can normally help children work through their stress—but not if they aren’t there.

“Studies show that high levels of cortisol, one of these stress hormones, can suppress the immune system and change the architecture of a developing brain, according to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. Another stress chemical, corticotropin-releasing hormone, can damage the hippocampus, which plays a major role in learning and memory.

“The brain develops rapidly before the age of 3, with some connections strengthening and some being pruned away. In healthy, normal kids, synaptic connections related to learning, playing, and social skills are being formed during the toddler years. But, as Kraft explained, in children who have unrelenting stress, the strongest connections in the brain are those related to fear, aggression, and anxiety.

…

“As the kids grow, the brain starts pruning some of the weaker synaptic connections while keeping the stronger ones. Healthy kids’ brains will keep the connections related to learning or resilience, while perhaps wiping away the small hiccups of childhood. But in kids who have suffered toxic stress, the enduring connections will be the ones related to fear and anxiety, Kraft explained, while those related to learning or relating socially might fade.

“Many kids like this, she said, ‘don’t develop speech, they don’t develop the social and emotional bonds, don’t develop gross motor function [normally]. It leads to very significant developmental delay.’”

Never Forget

Behind the numbers are individual tragedies that create a stark picture of what “making America great again” means to Trump and his enablers. Starting in November, voters will have an opportunity to say whether America has endured enough of Trump-branded greatness. His name isn’t on any ballot, but his dark shadow hovers over every Republican congressional candidate.

Where are the kids?

The court deadline for the US government to reunite children that Trump separated from their families at the border has come and gone. Hundreds of kids remain separated, stories about their treatment become worse, and the government uses creative word games to sell its excuses.

“Where are the kids?” Trump and his enablers have no answer. Keep posing the question and Republicans in Congress will feel the consequences in November.

Meanwhile…

Breaking news prompts a special Trump-Russia Timeline update.

The developments on July 26, 2018, prompt three new entries (and one revision to an earlier entry) in the Trump-Russia Timeline. Specifically, Michael Cohen reportedly is willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump knew about — and approved beforehand — the infamous June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

To grasp the significance of this development, go to the Timeline’s name filter and click on Donald Trump Jr.‘s name.

If Cohen is telling the truth — that he “and others” were present when Don Jr. told Trump about the Russians’ offer to help Trump win the election — then Don Jr. and his dad are in big trouble.

Then again, they already were. For those who have been following the evolution of the Timeline, the Cohen news corroborates what has been known for a while. Plenty of evidence was already pointing in the direction that Cohen has now pointed everyone: Trump conspired against the United States to win a presidential election.

Here’s are the three new entries (and one revision that adds Don Jr.’s answers to key questions from Senate interviewers in September 2017) in the Trump-Russia Timeline:

SOMETIME BETWEEN JUNE 3 and JUNE 8, 2016: Don Jr. Reportedly Tells Trump About Russian Offer to Help; Trump Approves

SEPT. 7, 2017: Don Jr. Talks to Senate Judiciary Committee, Denies Telling Trump About Meeting in Advance (revision of previous entry)

JULY 26, 2018: CNN and NBC Report That Trump Knew in Advance About Trump Tower Meeting

JULY 27, 2018: After Bombshell Report About Cohen, Trump Tweets

WHERE ARE THE KIDS?

Keep asking. Meanwhile…

Trump-Russia

Trump’s disastrous performance in Helsinki dominated the beginning of the week. The episode and its aftermath provided even more evidence that the Trump-Russia investigation is far from a “Witch Hunt” — and that the biggest witch may well turn out to be Trump himself.

By Friday, Rudy Giuliani offered the media a shiny object to distract from Trump’s exploding Russia problem: Giuliani’s comments about a recording between Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, waived Trump’s attorney-client privilege. The release of a single Cohen recording, together with Giuliani’s effort to spin its contents, is a classic Trump diversion.

Sandwiched between Helsinki and Rudy was Maria Butina’s arrest. She is charged with being a Russian spy. Butina and her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, have now earned their own, separate Trump-Russia Timeline name filters. Butina already had a “pop-up” bubble on the Timeline. Now Erickson gets one of those, too.

Maria Who?

Students of the Trump-Russia Timeline know about Butina. According to the recent criminal charges against her, since “at least March 2015,” she has worked with an named “RUSSIAN OFFICIAL” who matches the description of Alexander Torshin, a powerful Putin ally. Torshin has been in the Timeline’s sights for a long time.

What were Butina and the “RUSSIAN OFFICIAL” doing?

Executing a Russian campaign to influence Republican Party policies through the NRA.

Roll the Butina Tape

Grab a bucket of popcorn, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline, and click on Butina’s name. The resulting entries tell an incredible story. If an author submitted this outline of a manuscript for a proposed work of fiction, no book publisher would buy it. The saga seems too incredible to be believed. But according to the criminal charges against Butina, it’s all true. Here are just a few of the highlights:

— November 2013: Butina meets Paul Erickson, a long-time GOP operative who is part of an NRA delegation visiting Moscow. Butina is in her 20s; Erickson is over 50. Previously, Butina had tried and failed — twice — to get a visa to enter the US. But after the NRA came to town, she obtained a temporary visa to attend the annual NRA convention in 2014.

— March 24, 2015: Butina forwards a proposal dubbed “Diplomacy” to an unnamed “US Person 1” whose description matches Erickson’s. “Diplomacy” has a straightforward goal: mount a Russian political influence campaign using the NRA to impact GOP policies.

— July 11, 2015: At a large Trump town hall rally in Las Vegas, Butina somehow reaches a microphone stand in the audience and asks Trump a loaded question: How would a Trump administration treat Russia? Trump answers that he’d get along with Putin and doesn’t think the US would need to continue the crippling sanctions against Russian.

— Aug. 4-6, 2015: Butina dines with “Russia’s favorite congressman,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in Moscow. Rohrabacher also meets with Torshin.

— December 2015: Torshin and Butina host an NRA leadership delegation in Moscow.

— May 19-22, 2016: Butina had tried to arrange a private meeting between Torshin and Trump at the NRA’s annual convention in Louisville, but Torshin has to settle for dinner with Don Jr. instead.

— August 2016: With the help of “US Person 1” (likely Erickson), Butina obtains a student visa to study at American University in Washington, DC.

— September-October-November 2016: Butina continues her project — “Diplomacy.” In an Oct. 5 exchange with Torshin, Butina writes, “We made our bet.” A month later, they discuss how that bet had paid off. Together, they explore the need to get input from “our people” on Trump’s possible nominees for Secretary of State. At her birthday party shortly after the election, Butina boasts that she had been part of the Trump campaign’s line of communication with Moscow. Her paramour Erickson (ikely “US Person 1”), tells people that he’s on Trump’s transition team.

— Nov. 30, 2016: Butina writes to “US Person 1” about high level Russians “coming to establish a back channel of communication….”

— Jan 20, 2017: Butina attends one of Trump’s inaugural balls.

— April 25, 2018: The FBI executes a search warrant against Butina’s residence. Among the seized materials are photographs of Butina with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The judge weighing the sufficiency of the evidence against Butina concluded that she presents such an extreme risk of flight that she must remain in jail pending trial. And now the Russian Foreign Ministry is launching a campaign to portray Butina as a martyr deserving freedom.

The charges against Butina refer to another person with whom she worked on the “Diplomacy” project — “US Person 2.” Soon the world will know the name of that traitor. Who is it? As Butina might say, “I’ve made my bet.”

This is real.

It has happened here — and it’s still happening.

And it’s not a drill.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s Trump-Russian Timeline updates:

NOVEMBER 2013: Erickson Meets Butina

MARCH 24, 2015: Butina Contacts ‘US Person 1’ About ‘Diplomacy’ Project

APR. 7, 2015: Butina and Torshin Meet with US Officials

APR. 10-12, 2015: Trump and Torshin at NRA Convention (revision of previous entry to add exact dates)

JUNE 12, 2015: Butina Publishes Article in The National Interest

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

AUG. 4-6, 2015: Rohrabacher Meets With Torshin

FEB. 4, 2016: Butina and Torshin Attend National Prayer Breakfast

MARCH 10-11, 2016: Butina Works With ‘US Person 1’; Thanks ‘US Person 2’ for Helping US-Russia Relations

APRIL 27, 2016: Trump Delivers First Major Foreign Policy Speech (revision of previous entry)

AUGUST 2016: Butina Enters US on Student Visa

SEPT. 16, 2016: Butina Tries to Schedule ‘Friendship and Dialogue’ Dinner

OCT. 4, 2016: ‘US Person 1’ Writes About Private Line of Communication with Kremlin

OCT. 5, 2016: Butina and ‘RUSSIAN OFFICIAL’ Exchange Messages: ‘We Made Our Bet’

OCT. 6-7, 2016: Intelligence Community Publishes Statement on Russian Interference (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 8-9, 2016: Butina: ‘I Am Ready For Further Orders’

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

NOV. 12, 2016: Butina Boasts About Her Contacts with Trump Campaign

NOV. 30, 2016: Butina Writes About Establishing US-Russia ‘Back Channel’

JAN. 6, 2017: Trump Receives Intelligence Briefing That Details Putin’s Role in Election Interference; Meets Comey for the First Time (revision of previous entry)

FEB. 2, 2017: Butina and Torshin Attend National Prayer Breakfast

APRIL 25, 2018: FBI Searches Butina’s Residence

JULY 15, 2018: Butina Arrested

JULY 16, 2018: Trump Sides with Putin in Helsinki

JULY 17, 2018: Trump Tweets About NATO/Putin Success, Quotes Paul on ‘Partisan Investigations’/Putin

JULY 17, 2018: Trump Responds to International Bipartisan Criticism

JULY 17, 2018: Judge Denies Manafort’s Motion to Move Trial Venue

JULY 17, 2018: Grand Jury Indicts Butina

JULY 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Success With Putin

JULY 18, 2018: Trump Denies That Russia Is Still Attacking US; Sarah Sanders Says Trump Didn’t

JULY 18, 2018: Butina Held Without Bail Pending Trial

JULY 18-19, 2018: NYT Details Trump’s Knowledge of Putin Election Interference; Trump Tweets

JULY 19, 2018: Putin Says He Proposed ‘Peace Plan’ to Trump

JULY 19, 2018: Trump Invites Putin to White House

JULY 19, 2018: Russian Foreign Ministry: ‘Free Maria Butina’

JULY 19, 2018: Rosenstein: DOJ To Issue Alerts to Targets of Foreign Hackers

JULY 20, 2018: Trump Rejects Putin’s ‘Peace Plan’

JULY 20, 2018: Trump Tweets and Retweets

JULY 20, 2018: Treasury Willing to Lift Sanctions on Rusal

JULY 21, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Rigged Witch Hunt’, ‘No Collusion’, ‘No Obstruction’

JULY 21, 2018: DOJ Releases FISA Application Relating to Page

JULY 22-23, 2018: Trump Tweets Lies About FISA Warrant

JULY 22-23: Trump Tweets About Putin Meeting

JULY 23, 2018 Government Update: 

Government reveals for the first time that more than 400 adults have been deported without their kids. But that’s just the tip of this ugly iceberg:

Total number of children separated from their families: 2,551

Parent(s) deported without their kids: 463

Adults released into the interior US (without their kids): 217

Parent(s) “waived” unification: 130

Class members reunified in ICE custody: 879 (out of 2,551)

WHERE ARE THE KIDS?

Keep asking the question. Trump’s “treatment of families at the border” is THE number one issue that unites more Americans against Trump and his complicit Republicans in Congress than any other. More, even, than Trump’s cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

According to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of voters from July 15-18, 2018, 58 percent disapprove of Trump’s family separation policy. Fifty-one percent disapprove of his handling of Russia.

Keep digging and the story keeps getting uglier. As of July 22, this was the report from the US government operating in the name of every American:

— One-third of the almost 3000 kids subject to the court’s reunification order are either “ineligible for reunification or not yet known to be eligible.” Note the government’s lawyerly rhetorical shift in the burden of proof: Kids are presumed ineligible until the government decides otherwise.That looks like the kind of legal sleight-on-hand that one of Trump’s enablers with a law degree would develop. Yes, I’m looking at you, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar (JD, Yale ’01)

— Parents of another 136 children “waived their right to be reunited.” Whoa. They gave away their children forever? Through what process? Apparently by violating international right of every immigrant to seek asylum: “Immigrant Parents Face a Dilemma: Will Making an Asylum Claim Make it Harder to Reunite with Their Kids?”

— Parents of 91 more kids had “prohibitive criminal records or were otherwise deemed ineligible” for reunification. “Prohibitive” — by what standard? “Deemed ineligible” — by whom?

How did this happen?

Trump and the GOP have no answer to that one. One proffered excuse: “They shouldn’t have come to the US border.” That ignores the human right under international law of every person to seek asylum. In the US, federal immigration courts have been granting almost half of such requests.

Likewise, the first time offense of arriving at the border illegally is a misdemeanor. Ask any defender of Trump’s family separation policy to name a single misdemeanor for which the punishment is the permanent loss of the alleged perpetrator’s child. Proven child abuse is one thing, but not even the most ardent Trump defender is arguing that such behavior accounts for the almost 3,000 kids separated from their families. Even murderers serving life sentences are permitted visits from family members.

Every week, one of the darkest episodes in American history becomes darker. And Trump’s distracting antics push the story farther and farther away from the front page where it belongs.

3,000 kids.

Keep repeating it.

And keep pushing the media to cover the individual faces that accompany this ongoing tragedy. Make it real. Make it personal. It’s not about what Trump calls “vermin” and “infestation.” It’s about innocent kids and how America’s Republican-controlled government is treating them.

Where are the kids?

Thousands of children await reunification with their families. Meanwhile, many of those kids languish in prison-like conditions. Is this really America?

Before answering, turn to the latest facts that suggest a troubling answer to an unthinkable question: Did the person responsible for implementing the child-separation policy — the President of the United States — win through unlawful means the power he now exercises in the name of every US citizen?

Mueller’s Latest Indictment: Who’s Next?

Last week, the 18-month investment in creating and maintaining the Trump-Russia Timeline paid off again by providing context. (Next week’s update will continue that trend. When considered with surrounding events, the factual allegations in the affidavit supporting the recent criminal complaint against Russian national Maria Butina become far more significant.)

Many of the newest entries in this update come from special counsel Robert Mueller’s July 13, 2018 indictment, which reveals startling details about previous events. Some occurred more than two years ago. The Timeline provides their damning context.

The indictment brought the total number of known defendants in the Trump-Russia scandal to 35. It charges 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking into the Hillary Clinton, DNC, and DCCC computer systems, stealing information, and disseminating the stolen material through various means, including Wikileaks (although it doesn’t disclose WikiLeaks’ identity). The indictment contains many clues that more criminal charges are coming. It also hints at the identity of those who may have the most to fear in Mueller’s next round of indictments.

That round is coming. Now that Mueller has exposed the Russian actors at the center of the Trump-Russia scandal, Americans on the other side of the transaction will be next.

And Trump knows it.

Here are four episodes for which the Trump-Russia Timeline offers context and insight.

EPISODE #1: THE ART OF A DEAL/STEAL

Background: Russians first hacked the email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, on Mar. 19, 2016.

— Starting in late March, Trump adviser George Papadopoulos meets in London with an intermediary — and then with a woman claiming to be Putin’s niece — who claim that Russia has thousands of stolen Clinton emails and wants to help Trump use them to win the election. (In November 2017, the intermediary — Joseph Mifsud — disappears after his role in the Trump-Russia scandal surfaces. Last week, he failed to show up for a court appearance in Italy.)

— Mar. 31, 2016: Meeting with his campaign’s national security team, Trump says he wants a softer approach to Russia. Papadopoulos tells Trump that he could arrange a personal meeting between Trump and Putin.

— Apr. 27, 2016: In his first major foreign policy address, Trump discusses easing relations between Russia and the US. Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak is sitting near the front of the room and attends a VIP reception.

— Apr. 29, 2016: The DNC first notices suspicious activity on its computer systems. By May, its outside team of experts determines that the hacking had come from Russia.

— June 3, 2016, Dontald Trump Jr. receives word that Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton want to meet with him. “I love it,” Don Jr. replies.

— June 7, 2016: The meeting date with the Russians is set with Don Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner attending. That evening, Trump tells the crowd celebrating his New Jersey primary victory: “I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week [June 13] and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.

Indictment revelation: On June 8, 2016, the Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) launches “DCLeaks.com” and starts releasing stolen DNC emails. Before long, WikiLeaks disseminates them, too.

Who’s in big trouble?

Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, Trump’s national security team, and Julian Assange (WikiLeaks). The indictment doesn’t state whether the Russian hacking and dissemination operation was part of larger conspiracy with American citizens to install a president who had affirmed his warmth toward Russia. But Trump knows.

And so does Mueller.

***

EPISODE #2: “RUSSIA, IF YOU’RE LISTENING…”

— July 27, 2016: In the morning, Trump says, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Indictment revelation: “After hours”, Russian hackers attempt to infiltrate “for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office.”

Who’s in big trouble?

Trump. The indictment doesn’t disclose whether that particular Russian hack was a direct response to Trump’s earlier invitation. But Trump knows.

And so does Mueller.

***

EPISODE #3: GOP SEEKS RUSSIAN HELP

— Aug. 4, 2016: Roger Stone says that Guccifer 2.0 is not “the Russians” (spoiler alert: it is) and that WikiLeaks has devastating information on Clinton that Julian Assange will release to the public soon. Throughout August and September, Stone communicates directly with Guccifer 2.0 and discusses publicly anticipated WikiLeaks’ disclosures that will damage Clinton. Stone also boasts that, even though he left the campaign formally, he speaks regularly to Trump (which he does through the election and beyond).

— Aug. 12, 2016: Florida GOP consultant Aaron Nevins reaches out to Guccifer 2.0, who had invited journalists to send questions via Twitter direct messages relating to information that Guccifer 2.0 had hacked from the DNC and the DCCC.

Indictment revelation: On August 15, 2016, a congressional candidate asks Guccifer 2.0 for documents that the Russians had stolen from the DNC and the DCCC.  

— Aug. 22, 2016: Responding to Nevins’ Aug. 12 request, Guccifer 2.0 uploads almost 2.5 gigabytes of stolen documents — including the Democratic Party’s get-out-the-vote strategy for Florida — to Nevins’ Dropbox. Guccifer 2.0 then sends Roger Stone a link to Nevins’ blog. Nevins continues posting hacked documents through the end of August, culminating in the Sept. 8, 2016, release of the DCCC’s “Democrats Turnout Model” for Florida.

Who’s in big trouble?

Stone, Nevins, Assange (WikiLeaks), and the unnamed congressional candidate who asked Guccifer 2.0 for hacked documents. The indictment doesn’t reveal candidate’s identity. But that person knows who he or she is.

And so does Mueller.

***

EPISODE #4: THEFT OF THE DEMOCRATS’ ANALYTICS

A political party’s voter “analytics” are among any campaign’s most valuable tools. For an opponent who acquires them, it’s the equivalent of obtaining an adversary’s strategic plan for winning a war. Mueller’s indictment charges that in September 2016, the Russian hackers gathered “test applications relating to DNC’s analytics”, which they copied and moved to cloud-based accounts. The indictment doesn’t reveal what happened to the information thereafter or how it was used during the final two months of the campaign.

But those who benefited from the theft do.

And so does Mueller.

Who could be in big trouble? 

Anyone who knew that the campaign was using the DNC’s analytics to help Trump win the election. That could include Jared Kushner (who oversaw Trump’s digital operation), Brad Parscale (Trump’s digital campaign director), and Trump himself.

More is Coming

One more thing: Last week, Trump’s former national security Michael Flynn appeared in court and confirmed that he is still cooperating with Mueller. But the facts underlying the latest indictment of Russian intelligence officers didn’t come from Flynn. He’s supplying different information about wrongdoing by US citizens.

Mueller started with the Russian side of the transaction. Coming soon: The US side of a story that will live in infamy.

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

JUNE 8, 2016: Russian Hackers Launch DCLeaks.com

JULY 27, 2016: Trump Exhorts Russia to Hack Clinton’s Email Server; Russians Attempt New Hack of Clinton Accounts (revision of pf previous entry) 

AUG. 15, 2016: Congressional Candidate Requests Stolen DNC/DCCC Emails from Guccifer 2.0

JULY 9, 2017: Trump Tweets About His Conversations with Putin

MAR. 20, 2018: Trump Congratulates Putin on Election Victory  (revision of pf previous entry) 

JULY 7, 2018: Sen. Johnson: Questions Russian Sanctions and Significance of Russia’s Election Interference

JULY 9, 2018: Trump Lies About NATO Costs

JULY 10, 2018: Flynn Still Cooperating With Mueller

JULY 10, 2018: Trump Continues Assault on NATO; Remains Soft on Putin

JULY 10, 2018: Trump Tweets About Strzok and Page

JULY 10, 2018: Britain Fines Facebook over Cambridge Analytica Scandal

JULY 10, 2018: Page Refuses to Appear Before House Committees

JULY 11, 2018: Misfud is Still Missing

JULY 11-12, 2018: Trump Attacks NATO Allies With Lies, Backs Off, Then Renews Assault

JULY 11, 2018: Trump Tweets About Strzok and Page

JULY 12, 2018: Strzok Testifies before House Committees

JULY 12, 2018: Trump Overrules Intelligence and Law Enforcement Advice; Orders Release of Investigative Files to Congress

JULY 12, 2018: Trump Blasts Theresa May in London

JULY 13, 2018: Trump Says He Supports May

JULY 13, 2018: Rosenstein Announces New Mueller Indictment

JULY 13, 2018: Coats Says Russian Cyberattack Warning Lights ‘Blinking Red’

JULY 13, 2018: House GOP Preparing New Push to Impeach Rosenstein

JULY 14, 2018: In Wake of Mueller Indictment, Trump Tweets About Obama and ‘Deep State’ 

JULY 15, 2018: En Route to Meeting with Putin, Trump Tweets ‘Witch Hunt’; Russia Agrees

Where are the kids?

The question remains largely unanswered by the US government that stripped them from their parents. The complicit GOP members of Congress remain conspicuously silent.

A federal court has required the reunification of approximately 3,000 children separated from their families at the border under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. The deadline is July 26. Based on its track record with a tiny subset of this group — children under the age of five — there is a zero percent chance that the Trump administration will meet that deadline. But there’s a 100 percent chance that it will manipulate the numbers to create a false narrative obscuring its failure.

Fun with Numbers — Except It’s Not Funny to Toddlers

Trump will blow the July 26 deadline because his administration couldn’t comply with a similar order to reunite only 103 kids under age five by July 10. As of July 12 — two days late — it had reunited only 57 of the children. Even more remarkably, it treated the remaining 46 as a creative solution to an arithmetic problem.

Specifically, on July 10, Justice Department attorneys told the court that 27 of the remaining 46 children were “determined to be ineligible” for reunification. Less than 48 hours later, that number had risen to — you guessed it — 46.

Voila!

Fifty-seven reunifications plus 46 “ineligibles” equals 103. Reunification problem solved.

Behind the Numbers

The government claims to be relying on “court-approved criteria” in making the “ineligibility” determinations. If so, the criteria are suspect:

— For 12 of the kids, ineligibility resulted because the US government deported their parents without them. Seriously? That’s an escape hatch for kidnapping children?

— For another 11, parents are in state or federal custody for unspecified (to the public) offenses. What are those offenses, exactly? I sure hope the misdemeanor of attempted illegal entry at the border isn’t among them.

— Another 11 parents have what the government describes as “a serious criminal history (charges or convictions for child cruelty, kidnapping, murder, human smuggling, domestic violence, etc.)” “Charges”? “Etc.”? Presumably, the court will ask for more information about this catch-all.

The Human Face of Tragedy

Behind the numbers are tragic individual chapters in one of America’s darkest stories. Read this front-page article in The New York Times, which describes innocent children housed and treated as prisoners, and then weep for those children, their families, and our country: “Cleaning Toilets, Following Rules: A Migrant Child’s Days in Detention.”

July 26, 2018 is the next court-ordered date by which more than 2,000 kids are to be reunited with their families.

Creative arithmetic is not an answer; it’s an insult.

Never let Trump and the Complicit GOP forget what they have done — and continue to do — in the name of the United States of America.

Never.

The whole world is watching. It won’t forget, either.

“WHERE ARE THE KIDS?”

Still asking.

Juxtaposition #1:

— Twelve teenagers trapped with their adult coach in a Thai cave riveted the world for three weeks until the last of them is rescued on July 10.

— Thousands of minor children whom the US government separated from their families under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy remain separated. For some of those kids, the separation is permanent. Last week, the Justice Department told a federal court that the Department of Homeland Security had 19 children under age five whose parents it had already deported. On July 9, DOJ said the number was nine — with another nine released into the US. And there’s one child for whom HHS has no information about the parent(s). None. Still to be revealed: Of the approximately 3,000 minors separated from their parents, how many have been reunited? And for how many others has government malfeasance made reunification impossible? Don’t all of these kids deserve at least as much international media attention as the teenagers trapped in a Thai cave?

Juxtaposition #2:

— The July 4th holiday celebrated American independence.

— Simultaneous Trump-Russia Timeline events demonstrate how Trump and his minions are imperiling American democracy:

June 28: Trump repeats, yet again, Putin’s lie that Russia didn’t meddle in the election:

(The capitalization of “Meddling” and “Election” is a mystery.)

July 1, 2018: Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, appears on Face the Nation. Asked about his recent conversation in Moscow with Vladimir Putin regarding Russia’s 2016 and 2018 election interference, Bolton says, “[W]hat President Putin said, through a translator of course, but what he said was there was no meddling in 2016 by the Russian state… Well I think that’s that’s an interesting statement.”

Bolton is a Yale-educated attorney who has now become another Trump lawyer-enabler. In an effort to defend the indefensible, he’s parsing words. Bolton’s attempt to distinguish “Russian state” from the fact that Putin himself directed Russia’s 2016 election interference operation is worse than sophistry. What is Bolton really doing? Rolling out Trump’s newest defense of Putin. Welcome to another iteration of Trumpworld “doublespeak.”

July 3: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) leads a Republican-only congressional delegation to Moscow where he and seven others members of Congress meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, former Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (who is now member of Russia’s upper parliament), and other Russian officials. To appreciate the significance of Kislyak’s presence, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on hs name.

The four-hour session is closed to public view. But in opening remarks, Shelby tells Lavrov and his entourage: “We could be competitors — we are competitors — but we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.”

Likewise, Shelby tells Vyacheslav Volodin, a close Putin ally and speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament (Duma), “I’m not here today to accuse Russia of this or that or so forth. I’m saying that we should all strive for a better relationship.”

In a plenary session of Russia’s lower parliament, members greet Shelby and his fellow Republicans with applause.

Following the meeting, Russian state television presenters and guests mock the US delegation for putting a weak foot forward. “The message of tough talk they promised in Washington ‘changed a bit’ by the time they got to Moscow,” according to reporting by The Washington Post.

Juxtaposition #2A:

Next to the Republicans’ Moscow trip, juxtapose this underreported Independence Day item:

July 3: While senior GOP members of Congress receive accolades from Putin’s proxies, the US Senate Intelligence Committee issues a bipartisan summary of its findings, which include:

• The January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that Russia interfered with the 2016 election is a “sound intelligence product.”
• “The Committee concurs” that Russia’s “influence campaign was approved by President Putin.”
• Moscow “sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton.”
• “The ICA relies on public Russian leadership commentary, Russian state media reports, public examples of where Russian interests would have aligned with candidates’ policy statements, and a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump.”

What Lies Beneath

Once upon a time, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) stood alone among fellow congressional representatives in his outspoken defense of Russia. (Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline, click on Rohrabacher’s name, and see the entries that enmesh him deeply in the Trump-Russia scandal.) Rohrabacher’s infection is spreading and now the epidemic pervades the GOP.

When Trump and Putin meet privately in Helsinki on July 16 — without any US diplomats or aides in the room — this much is certain: Some outcomes will become obvious immediately. If Trump accepts Russia’s annexation of Crimea, lifts US sanctions, or cedes Syria to Putin’s chosen leader, the world will see it and weep.

But it will take a longer time for the public to learn the whole truth about everything that happens in the private session between Trump and Putin. Someday, future historians will evaluate the pieces of American greatness that Trump gave away — and the magnitude of personal gain that he received in return.

Here’s the complete list of entries for this week’s update of the Trump-Russia Timeline:

LATE MARCH 2016: British Intelligence Alerts NSA to Russian Hack of DNC

JULY 1, 2018: Bolton Says Putin Denied Meddling by ‘Russian State

JULY 3, 2018: Trump Tweets “Witch Hunt”

JULY 3, 2018: GOP Congressional Delegation Meets Lavrov, Kislyak  and Others in Moscow; Russian Legislature Applauds

JULY 3, 2018: Senate Intelligence Committee Confirms Russian Meddling in US Election

JULY 5, 2018: Cohen Hires Former Clinton Aide

JULY 6, 2018: Giuliani Sets New Conditions for Mueller Interview

NEW: JULY 7, 2018: Trump Tweets “Witch Hunt” as Strzok Agrees to Testify Publicly

NEW: JULY 8, 2018: Giuliani Revises Trump-Comey Conversation About Flynn; Renews Assault on Mueller Probe

“Where are the kids?”

The federal court’s June 26 ruling was blunt: “The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance — responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government’s own making.”

A week later, the US Department of Health and Human Services upped its estimate: the number of children separated from their parents went from 2,300 to “under 3,000” — “about 100” are under the age of five. FIVE.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar (JD, Yale ’91) offered this tone-deaf insight on the family separations: “It’s important to remember that information from children can at times be unreliable.”

He could have added that it’s especially difficult when they’re too young to speak — much less know their parents’ full names — and were separated from their families by an incompetent government that didn’t have readily available the information required to reunite them.

Azar: It’s Not Trump’s Fault — or His

Alex Azar is yet another Trump enabler with a law degree. The cycle is always the same: Refuse to admit that Trump is to blame for anything; lie as necessary to deflect responsibility from the Trump administration to someone or something else.

“Any confusion is due to a broken immigration system and court orders,” Azar told reporters on July 5. “It’s not here.”

The exit of Scott Pruitt (JD, Univ. of Tulsa, ’93) proves that, in the long run, it’s a losing strategy. Eventually, the truth come out, the enablers’ reputations lie in tatters, and the harsh judgment of history awaits.

The Clock Ticks

For Azar, that judgment is imminent. On Thursday, July 5 — the same day he said that the government would meet court deadlines (July 10 for kids under five; July 26 for all other minors) and the reunification “mission would be accomplished” — the Trump administration asked the court for an extension of those deadlines. At a July 6 hearing, more ugly facts emerged about the kids under five:

— 83 children have been mapped with 86 parents; 16 kids have not been mapped with parents. Why not?

— Of the 86 parents, 46 are in ICE custody; 19 have been deported without their kids. How and why?

— Of the 86 parents, another 19 were released from ICE custody. How and why?

— Two of the 86 parents “have been determined to have a criminal history that would make them unfit or a danger, criminal convictions related to child cruelty and kidnapping or rape.” Says who?

How many reunifications have occurred? No one is saying, but if the number was significant, Azar and Trump would be touting it. Bigly.

For too many children, America’s Independence Day 2018 will forever have a special personal meaning: involuntary separation from their parents at the hands of the US government. Some of those kids and their parents will never see each other again. While contemplating the nation’s devolution under Trump and his enablers, let that one sink in.

An Unfortunate List

Meanwhile, add Alex Azar (JD, Yale, ’91)to the growing list of Trump enablers with a law degree.  Here are some of the others:

Jared Kushner (JD/MBA, NYU, ’07)

Mike Pence (JD, Indiana – Robert McKinney School of Law, ’86)

Jeff Sessions (JD, Alabama, ’73)

Don McGahn III (JD, Widener, ’94)

Kellyanne Conway (JD, George Washington, ’92)

Jay Sekulow (JD, Mercer, ’80)

Rudy Giuliani (JD, NYU, ’68)

Emmet Flood (JD, Yale, ’91)

Paul Manafort (JD, Georgetown, ’74)

Reince Priebus (JD, Miami, ’98)

Scott Pruitt (JD, Tulsa, ’93)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (JD, Kentucky, ’67)

Rep.Trey Gowdy (JD, South Carolina, ’89)

Rep. Jim Jordan (JD, Capital, ’01)

…And every other Republican member of Congress who graduated from law school and defers to Trump.

Upon admission to the bar, all lawyers swear an oath to defend the Constitution, uphold the rule of law, and encourage public confidence in the integrity of the legal system. Through acts of omission and commission, Trump’s cadre of enablers with JD’s are helping him undermine these fundamental principles that truly make America great.

Someday, America will be great again.

Editors’ Note: Until the government operating in the name of every American provides straight answers and solves a problem that Trump alone created, the following question will precede my posts:

“Where are the 2,000 kids and when will they be reunited with their families?”

Note to the press: At every daily White House briefing, ask Sarah Huckabee Sanders that question. When she dodges, says “Next question”, and calls on someone else, that reporter should pose it again.

Repeat the process as needed.

2,000 kids.

***

When future historians write about the Trump-Russia scandal, the retirement of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could loom large in the tale. His departure from the bench now assumes a prominent place in the Trump-Russia Timeline.

The Supreme Court and Trump-Russia

On the Court, Kennedy has been an occasional swing vote creating 5-4 majorities in favor of protecting Roe v. Wade, affirming same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, and upholding the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse cases. But the implications of Kennedy’s retirement for the Trump-Russia investigation could become equally momentous.

Trump is the subject of a serious criminal investigation into whether he (or his campaign) conspired with a hostile foreign power to win a US presidential election. Since then, he has engaged in what sure looks like a separate crime: systematically obstructing that investigation. Now he is poised to select the Supreme Court justice who could cast a final and deciding vote in his case.

Here’s just a partial list of the Trump-Russia issues that could land in the Supreme Court’s lap for a final determination — with Kennedy’s successor providing the decisive vote:

1. Does Mueller’s entire investigation violate the Constitution?
2. What is the proper scope of various privileges that Trump and witnesses have invoked to block congressional and special counsel inquiries?
3. Can a President obstruct justice?
4. Can a President be compelled to testify before a grand jury?
5. Can a President be indicted?
6. Can a President be tried?
7. Can a President pardon himself?
8. Can a presidential pardon extinguish the recipient’s exposure to separate charges under state law?

Forget the rhetoric about a “constitutional crisis” involving a showdown between the executive and judicial branches. Trump is now positioned to achieve a bloodless victory and conquer the judiciary. The complicit Republicans in the Senate won’t stop him. Until Democrats gain control of the House or Senate, Congress is Trump’s host species.

For the rule of law in America, it can’t get much worse. Apart from an unlikely electoral tidal wave that gives Democrats the House majority required to impeach Trump and the 67 senators required to convict him, only one escape hatch would remain: The new swing vote in the US Supreme Court — Chief Justice John Roberts. If and when the time comes for Roberts to vote in the Trump-Russia case, he’ll define the “Roberts Court” forever — for good or ill.

Kennedy’s Connections to Trump

Although far less significant, another aspect of Justice Kennedy’s retirement prompted the return to a story that first surfaced more than a year ago: Kennedy’s son, Justin, has longstanding family connections to the Trumps and the Kushners.

No one is accusing Justice Kennedy of wrongdoing. But judges are required to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety,” lest it undermine public confidence in the integrity of the justice system. More fundamentally, pursuing questions about connections among the nation’s most powerful leaders is simply investigative journalism. It keeps those leaders accountable, as any democracy should.

Justin, Trump, and Kushner

Justin Kennedy worked at Deutsche Bank and, according to The Financial Times, “was one of Trump’s most trusted associates” during a time that the bank loaned Trump $1 billion and no other major financial institution would touch the bankruptcy recidivist.

When Justin left Deutsche Bank in 2010, he co-founded LNR Property, a real estate firm that became involved in Kushner Companies’ troubled 666 Fifth Avenue building.

The story of the Kennedy-Trump-Kushner connections first appeared in an April 11, 2017 Medium.com article that attracted little attention. Reviewing the Trump-Russia Timeline during that period reveals an understandable reason why: There was a lot happening during the two weeks preceding former FBI Director James Comey’s firing. Since then, even more has happened.

There may be nothing nefarious in any of this. If so, the story will die. But it’s unwise to close the file before reading it.

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

JUNE 2005: Manafort Pitches Himself to Russian Oligarch (revision of previous entry)

MAY 4, 2018: Judge Asks Mueller Team Tough Questions

JUNE 25, 2018: Trump Tweets About Warner, Mueller, FBI

JUNE 25, 2018: House Republicans Ask Mueller to Name Everyone Involved in His Investigation

JUNE 25, 2018: DOJ Responds to Nunes’ Ultimatum

JUNE 25-26, 2018: Trump Tweets About Stzok

JUNE 26, 2018: Nunes Demands More Information from DOJ

JUNE 26, 2018: Judge Who Had Asked Tough Questions Upholds Mueller’s Authority

JUNE 27, 2018: Trump-Putin Meeting Set

JUNE 27, 2018: Strzok Testifies for 11 Hours; Democrats Demand Release of His Transcript

JUNE 27, 2018: Justice Kennedy Announces Retirement

JUNE 28, 2018: Trump Defends Russia; Attacks Strzok, Mueller, Comey, McCabe

JUNE 28, 2018: Rosenstein and Wray Appear Before House

Before turning to a key development in the Trump-Russia Timeline, this week’s update pauses to ask a simple question about the border crisis:

If Americans allow Trump to get away with this, what have we become?

At protests around the country on June 30, we’ll learn the answer.

In the aftermath of Trump’s executive order purporting to solve the family separation crisis that his zero tolerance policy alone created, a lot has happened — none of it good.

The Rule of Law Under Assault Again

It’s critical to note that most undocumented immigrants arrive at the border seeking asylum — a right afforded them under international law. US judges have been granting about half of those requests.

It’s also important to realize that the US Supreme Court has reaffirmed repeatedly the constitutional due process rights of such individuals: “[T]he Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful or unlawful.” Zadvydas v. David, 533 US 678 (2001). See also, Plyler v. Doe, 457 US 202 (1982) (illegal aliens entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment).

On June 24, Trump tweeted that he wants the power to demand the immediate and summary deportation of immigrants (“no Judges or Court Cases”). That violates the US Constitution.

If Trump thinks he can use extortion to circumvent the Constitution, he’s wrong about that, too. Nevertheless, apparently he’s now offering immigrants a deal: waive your constitutional rights, agree to deportation, get your kid back, and leave the United States. Some incompetent attorney-enabler probably told Trump that kidnapping immigrant minors, using them as hostages, and asking their parents for ransom in return for their release would be permissible. It’s not.

Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe observes, “That’s flatly unconstitutional extortion under Speiser v. Randall (1958), Sherbert v. Verner (1963), and Agency for Int’l Dvlp v. Alliance for Open Society (2013).”

Trump’s Distraction

Meanwhile on June 22, Trump used another of his circus acts to divert attention from his devastating policy. Into the national spotlight he paraded representatives of family members who had been killed by illegal immigrants. Trump said they had suffered “permanent separation” from loved ones. I guess that meant we shouldn’t weep for the children Trump has damaged.

Trump’s false moral equivalences are always striking, but this one is especially absurd. To state the obvious, none of the 2,500 children separated from their parents since May 5 has killed anyone.

But the more important point is that Trump still hasn’t admitted that his zero tolerance was a mistake. Rather, his executive order doubled-down on it. Since then, he hasn’t taken his foot off the accelerator.

How Many Kids and Where Are They?

On June 20, the Department of Homeland Security said it had separated 2,342 children from their parents along the border between May 5 and June 9. Three days later, DHS said that, as of June 20, the number was up to 2,575. Of that group:

— 522 kids had been reunited with their families,

— 2,053 remained in the custody of Health and Human Services (HHS),

The frightening possibility is that many of those 2,053 children will never see their families again. As The Washington Post reports: “Further complicating matters are bureaucratic errors that could leave government officials unaware that a child’s parent is detained in the United States. Attorneys also worry that some toddlers, or children who speak indigenous languages, might not have been able to give officials their parents’ complete names.”

The Post continues:

“In the case of one Guatemalan family, the Border Patrol failed to note in its apprehension report that a mother and daughter crossed the border together…. Without that information, government officials might not be aware that the child’s parent is detained in the United States.

“In other cases,…children arrive at shelters without the facility knowing that they have been separated from their parents, meaning they could be considered unaccompanied minors rather than children in need of reunification.”

To borrow Trump’s phrase from his June 22 parade of victims, “permanent separation” from their families is now a likely outcome for some of the 2,053 children awaiting reunification. Whatever the number, it’s too big. And the damage done — even to those kids eventually reunited — is too great.

Coming Soon: Worse

Conspicuous silence from Republicans in Congress proves that it will take a Democratic majority there to unearth the whole truth about this tragedy. Meanwhile, lest anyone doubt that Trump is doubling down on this ignominious episode, the US Navy is reportedly planning tent cities to house tens of thousands of families pursuant to Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.

If you’re hearing echoes from the darkest chapters in world history, you’re not alone. And if you’re wondering whether family internment camps are incubators for radicalization against America, time will tell.

Is this really America?

On June 30, find a protest location near you and show up.

Just show up.

Future generations will ask if you did.

Back to Trump-Russia: Aretmenko

As it should, the border crisis dominated the week’s news. But the Trump-Russia Timeline rolled on. The week’s biggest revelation came from a pro-Putin Ukrainian lawmaker who has now earned the latest spot on the Trump-Russia Timeline’s name filter: Andrey Artemenko. Click on his name and take a look at the resulting entries.

Recently, Artemenko told McClatchy that back in February 2016, he had begun developing a Ukrainian “peace plan” with Ukrainian-American billionaire Alexander Rovt and former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) (he had known the latter “for almost a decade”).

Artemenko took the plan to Moscow, where the ideas got a “positive” response. A few weeks before the election, he spoke with Felix Sater about it.

Now go to the Timeline and click on Sater’s name. Here are just a few highlights:

2002: Sater enters Trump’s life and becomes a business associate for the next 15 years. He concentrates on helping Trump develop a Trump Tower in Moscow — an effort that continues well into the 2016 election campaign and includes Michael Cohen.

July 2016: Sater visits Trump Tower on “confidential business.”

Election Day 2016; Sater reportedly attends a VIP election celebration.

Late January 2017: At a Manhattan hotel, Artemenko and Sater give Michael Cohen a Ukrainian “peace plan” for delivery to Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn. The plan would cede Crimea to Russia and lift US sanctions.

Bringing It All Together

Now superimpose another storyline that the Timeline depicts in detail.  Throughout the campaign and thereafter, Trump has denied that there were contacts between his campaign and Russia. But more than a dozen Trump people had more than 50 such contacts. Throughout the campaign and thereafter, Trump has refused to criticize Vladimir Putin. Throughout the campaign and thereafter, Trump has been a leading critic of US sanctions against Russia.

And since special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation began, Trump has been doing everything he can to undermine it.

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

FEB. 1, 2016: Artemenko, Ukrainian Billionaire, and former US Congressman Work on “Ukrainian Peace Plan”

JULY 2016: Sater Says He Visits Trump Tower (revision of previous entry)

FEB. 28, 2018: FBI Interviews Giuliani

JUNE 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Strzok, Comey and Mueller

JUNE 18, 2018: DOJ Inspector General Horowitz and FBI Director Wray Testify Before Senate Judiciary Committee

JUNE 19, 2018: Cohen Hires New Lawyer; Complains About Legal Fees; Resigns RNC Finance Committee Post

JUNE 19, 2018: Trump Tweets About IG Report

JUNE 19, 2018: Parscale Calls for Firing Sessions, Ending Mueller Probe

JUNE 19, 2018: Strzok Escorted from FBI Building; House GOP Grills Horowitz; Strzok Wants to Tell His Story

JUNE 20, 2018: Trump Tweets About IG Report

JUNE 22, 2018: DOJ Provides Internal Investigative Documents to Congress

JUNE 23, 2018: Trump Tweets “Witch Hunt”

On Thursday, June 14, 2018, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report on the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Over the next three days, Trump tweeted (and retweeted Fox News) about the report 17 times. On camera, he was even bolder: “It totally exonerates me.”

By Sunday morning, even Rudy Giuliani admitted that the report does no such thing. In fact, it doesn’t even consider the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. But that hasn’t stopped Trump and his allies from weaponizing it. The bigger the Trump lie, the louder and more persistent his voice — along with those of his Greek chorus.

This week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline includes a close look at one small slice of the IG report that hints at a bigger story yet to come. At least, that bigger story should be coming. Rudy may be central to its plot.

The October “Surpise”

On Oct. 31, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with FBI Director James Comey to discuss his infamous Oct. 28 letter updating Congress on the Clinton email investigation. According to Lynch, they talked about leaks from the New York office of the FBI. Why?

Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on Rudy Giuliani’s name. Among the resulting entries are these:

Sept. 26, 2016: FBI agents seize former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) laptop and find emails from his then-estranged wife, Huma Abedin, to Hillary Clinton.

Oct. 25: Giuliani tells Fox & Friends that “surprises” are coming, and Clinton won’t like them.

Oct. 26: Rudy tells Fox host Martha MacCallum that the surprises are imminent — in the next day or two — and they are “big.”

Oct. 28: Shortly after Comey releases his letter to Congress, Giuliani says that he’s heard from active and former FBI agents that there was a “revolution” going on inside the FBI over Comey’s failure to prosecute Clinton.

Lynch, Comey, and the FBI’s NY Office

When the IG interviewed Lynch during its investigation, here is what she said about her Oct. 31 meeting with Comey:

“Now, I knew that the laptop had been handled in a case out of New York. And so I said, you know, we have to talk about the New York office…and the concern that both you and I have expressed about leaks in the past…. And I said, you know, I’ve talked, you and I have talked about that before…. [McCabe] and I have talked about them before….”

“[Comey] said to me that it had become clear to him… that there is a cadre of senior people in New York who have a deep and visceral hatred of Secretary Clinton. And he said it is, it is deep…[H]e said it was surprising to him or stunning to him.”

“[H]e was saying it did exist, and it was hard to manage because these were agents that were very, very senior, or had even had timed out and were staying on, and therefore did not really feel under pressure from headquarters or anything to that effect…”

“And he made a comment about, you know, you understand that. A lot of people don’t understand that. You, you get that issue. I said, I get that issue. I said I’m, I’m just troubled that this issue, meaning the, the New York agent issue and leaks, I am just troubled that this issue has put us where we are today with respect to this laptop.”

And Then There’s Nunes

Fast-forward almost two years to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). On June 14, 2018, Nunes revealed that, shortly after the release of the IG report, “good FBI agents” told him in late September 2016 about the Clinton emails on Weiner’s laptop. But the FBI’s New York office first seized that laptop on Sept. 26, and Nunes didn’t share the information from the “good agents” with any Democrats on his House Intelligence Committee — ever.

Back to the Timeline:

Nov. 4, 2016, Giuliani tells Fox News that he expected Comey’s reopening of the Clinton investigation “three or four weeks ago.” The same day, senior congressional Democrats ask the Justice Department IG Horowitz to investigate leaks that seemed to account for Giuliani’s clairvoyance.

Whatever the “active agents” told Giuliani about the coming “surprise” was an illegal leak of highly confidential information relating to an federal ongoing investigation. The same is true for whatever the “good agents” told Nunes.

What’s Next

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 18, 2018, FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation into pre-election leaks from the FBI’s NY office. Inspector General Horowitz said only that his work on that issue remains “ongoing.”

Some observers, including Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, are skeptical about the IG’s investigation into pre-election leaks from the FBI’s NY office. Skepticism may be warranted, but there’s one more possibility that could be even more devastating to Trump than a fulsome probe of those leaks: Special counsel Robert Mueller may have taken that matter under his wing, in which case the IG won’t release his findings. In other words, Rudy Giuliani could well be a subject of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Someday, the whole truth about the “October surprise” that put Trump in the White House will be become known. When that happens, Trump will tweet as he has never tweeted before.

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

AUGUST 2014: Bolton’s Super PAC Hires Cambridge Analytica

DECEMBER 2015: Russians Close to Putin Meet With NRA Reps In Moscow

LATE MAY 2016: Stone Meets With Russian Claiming to Have ‘Political Dirt’ On Clinton

SEPT. 26, 2018: FBI Seizes Weiner’s Laptop

LATE SEPTEMBER 2016: Nunes Learns About Weiner’s Laptop From “Good FBI Agents”

OCT. 31, 2016: Comey and Lynch Discuss the FBI’s New York Office: “Deep Visceral Hatred” of Clinton and Leaks Related to Weiner’s Laptop

NOV. 12, 2016: Farage Meets With Trump

MARCH 22, 2018: Trump Names Bolton NSA

JUNE 1, 2018: Artemenko Appears Before Grand Jury

JUNE 14, 2018: NY Attorney General Sues Trump Foundation

JUNE 14, 2018: Trump Resumes Tweets About Russia Investigation; Tweets About Trump Foundation Suit

UNE 14, 2018: DOJ’s Inspector General Issues Report

JUNE 14, 2018: Giuliani Calls For Investigating Comey, Suspending Mueller, Imprisoning Strzok

JUNE 15-16-17, 2018: Trump Tweets, Retweets, and Talks About DOJ’s Inspector General Report

JUNE 15, 2018: Manafort Goes to Jail; Trump Tries To Distance Himself; Giuliani Talks Pardons

JUNE 15, 2018: Former Cambridge Analytica Employees Working for RNC

JUNE 17, 2018: Giuliani: ‘IG Report Doesn’t Exonerate Trump’

Trump’s approach to the Russia investigation reveals what attorneys call “consciousness of guilt.” He acts as if special counsel Robert Mueller poses an existential threat. Accordingly, one way to assess Trump’s self-interested behavior on many topics — not just the Russia investigation — is to view it through the Putin Prism.

Applying the Putin Prism to this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline update produces an interesting perspective on several new entries relating to the G-7 summit.

Lobbying for Putin 

Leaving for the summit on June 8, Trump said, “Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend, and it’s up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting, it should be a part of it… They should let Russia come back in.”

Unlike most of Trump’s proclamations at impromptu sessions with reporters, his lines seemed rehearsed.

Then for two days at the summit, he pressed the case for Putin’s inclusion, acknowledging only that “something happened a while ago where Russia is no longer in.” The “something” was Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which led to its expulsion from what had been the G-8 group of industrialized democracies.

A Bizarre Twist

After the summit ended and Trump had left, he tweeted that the US would not sign the G-7 joint statement. The media accepted as true Trump’s stated reason: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relatively mild remarks at the final G-7 press conference, where Trudeau released the statement to which all countries, including the US, had agreed previously. Reporters wrote off Trump’s tweets as just another case of his impulsive reactions to what he perceived to be a personal slight.

It was more than that. The next day, Trump spokesmen Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro appeared on Sunday morning news programs, parroting a more dramatic version of Trump’s new talking point: Trudeau had “stabbed Trump in the back.” Anyone familiar with the rise of authoritarianism in Weimar Germany after World War I bristled at that phrase.

Using the Putin Prism

Running these events through the Putin Prism produces a much different storyline. When Trump left Canada, the joint statement was a done deal. He had agreed to it. At the supposedly offending press conference, Trudeau didn’t say anything different – or new – from his prior public responses to Trump’s threats concerning new trade tariffs against Canada, a stalwart ally.

Trump’s stated reason for reneging on the G-7 communique makes no sense. So use the Putin Prism to test this hypothesis: Maybe someone on Air Force One briefed Trump on the 4,000-word statement. Certainly, if Putin and his advisers read it, Item 17 would have caught their attention:

— “We urge Russia to cease its destabilizing behaviour, to undermine democratic systems and its support of the Syrian regime.”

— “We condemn the attack using a military grade nerve agent in Salisbury, United Kingdom.”

— “We urge Russia to live up to its international obligations, as well as its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to uphold international peace and security.”

— “We reiterate our condemnation of the illegal annexation of Crimea and reaffirm our enduring support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. We maintain our commitment to assisting Ukraine in implementing its ambitious and necessary reform agenda.”

— “We recall that the continuation of sanctions is clearly linked to Russia’s failure to demonstrate complete implementation of its commitments in the Minsk Agreements and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty….”

— “Should its actions so require, we also stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase costs on Russia.”

If Trump viewed the G-7 statement through the Putin Prism, he saw that reneging on his prior support for the statement was preferable to upsetting Russia’s president.

A Different Perspective

The Putin Prism is a versatile tool for understanding some of Trump’s seemingly inexplicable behaviors. For example, scandal-ridden EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt keeps his job. Why? Because if Trump ever persuades Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, he could appoint Pruitt as acting attorney general without a confirmation hearing. In that scenario, Pruitt would replace Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein as Mueller’s supervisor and could, effectively, terminate Mueller’s investigation.

Likewise, consult the Trump-Russia Timeline and apply the Putin Prism to a key episode: Don Jr.’s statement that Trump dictated to describe the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Russians promising “dirt” in Hillary Clinton.

• July 7, 2017: The Times asks the White House for comment on a breaking story about the Trump Tower meeting. The White House stalls for time on the grounds that Trump’s team is busy at the G-20 summit in Germany.
• July 7: At the summit, Trump initally meets with Putin personally. The only other attendees are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and two interpreters. But later during dinner, Trump has a second, private conversation with Putin. This time, only Putin’s interpreter is present.
• According to Trump’s later account of his dinner conversation with Putin, “We talked about adoptions.”
• July 8: Aboard Air Force One on the return trip to Washington, Trump dictates Don Jr.’s statement describing the June 9 meeting: “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children…”

Where did Trump get the “adoptions” idea for Don Jr.’s statement? The Putin Prism reveals a plausible and upsetting answer.

Whenever Trump says or does something that seems bizarre on its face, run it through the Putin Prism. Some of his strangest actions might make more sense than you think. And that’s troubling.

Now you know why, in addition to the Trump-Putin discussions at the July 2017 summit, this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline now includes all other known dates that Trump and Putin have spoken since Trump took office: Jan. 28, 2017, Apr. 3, 2017, May 2, 2017, Nov. 21, 2017, Dec. 14, 2017, Dec. 17, 2017, and Feb. 12, 2018.

Take a look at what else was happening around those dates. You will be amazed. And you’ll begin to understand why one of Trump’s first initiatives after the November election was to create a “back-channel” with Putin.

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

JAN. 28, 2017: Putin Calls Trump

FEB. 17, 2017: Cambridge Analytica Director Meets With Assange

APR. 3, 2017: Trump Calls Putin

MAY 2, 2017: Trump Speaks With Putin

AUG. 1, 2017: White House Admits Trump ‘Weighed In’ on Don Jr.’s Misleading Statement (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 21, 2017: Trump Speaks With Putin

DEC. 14, 2017: Trump Speaks With Putin

DEC. 17, 2017: Trump Speaks With Putin

FEB. 12, 2018: Trump Speaks With Putin

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

APRIL 21, 2018: Swiss Banks Freeze Vekselberg’s Assets

MAY 23, 2018: Schiff: Send Interview Transcripts to DOJ For Perjury Investigation

MAY 31, 2018: Graham Suggests Rosenstein’s Recusal; DOJ Responds

JUNE 4, 2018: Trump Asserts Power To Pardon Himself

JUNE 4, 2018: Trump Attacks Mueller/Media “Witch Hunt”

JUNE 4, 2018: Sanders Refuses To Explain Her Previous Lie; Giuliani Says Sekulow Made a “Mistake”

JUNE 4, 2018: Mueller Accuses Manafort of Witness Tampering

JUNE 5, 2018: Trump Attacks Comey, Sessions, and Russia Investigation

JUNE 5, 2018: Parscale Launches Pro-Trump Website

JUNE 5, 2018: Vekselberg Has Repaid Bank Debt, Cut Foreign Holdings

JUNE 6, 2018: Ryan Sees No Evidence To Support Trump’s “Spy-gate” Claim

JUNE 7, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller, Comey, and the Need to Investigate Democrats

JUNE 8, 2018: Trump Says He’ll Stop Talking About Trump-Russia For Awhile, But Doesn’t

JUNE 8, 2018: Trump Says Russia Should Be Readmitted to G-7

JUNE 8, 2018: Mueller Indicts Kilimnik; Adds Charges Against Manafort

JUNE 9, 2018: Trump at Summit: Russia Should Rejoin G-7

JUNE 9, 2018: Trump Reneges on G-7 Joint Statement

Trump isn’t subtle. He uses big sticks and tantalizing carrots. His sticks include tweets attacking potential witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Those open and notorious attempts to intimidate are one of the many ways that Trump has been obstructing justice.

Last week, Trump used carrots — signaling to those who remain loyal to him personally the prospect of a pardon down the road. He even claimed the power to pardon himself. It was a remarkable week for the Trump-Russia Timeline.

Sheriff Joe

In August 2017, Trump bypassed the years-long pardon application process to grant one to former Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He had been convicted of criminal contempt of court for brutally racist treatment of undocumented immigrants. Some speculated that Trump’s pardon was a “message” to potential witnesses in the Trump-Russia investigation — a natural follow-up to Trump’s April 25 message to Mike Flynn: “Stay strong.”

But as with all outrageous Trump actions, the controversy over Arpaio’s pardon disappeared as his new outrageous acts took its place. By May 1, 2018, Mike Pence was saying that he was honored by the presence of then-GOP Senate candidate Arpaio — a  “tireless champion of the rule of law.”

Scooter

In 2007, President George W. Bush received enormous pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney to pardon Cheney’s former chief of staff “Scooter” Libby after convictions for perjury and obstruction of justice. That’s even closer to the Trump-Russia situation than Arpaio’s because:

1) Crimes similar to Libby’s — perjury and obstruction of justice — are the subject of Mueller’s investigation;

2) A special counsel investigation led to Libby’s conviction; and

3) The special counsel who prosecuted Libby successfully was then-US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald — appointed to do so by then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey. Fitzgerald is now in private practice and represents Comey.

Dinesh, Martha, and Rod

In 2014, conservative author, commentator, and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud. But even without a pending application, Trump pardoned him on May 31, 2018. It’s no coincidence that campaign finance laws are elements of Mueller’s investigation.

As he announced D’Souza’s pardon, Trump said he was contemplating similar relief for Martha Stewart. She was convicted in 2004 of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators. Sound familiar?

So is the name of the US Attorney in Manhattan who gave prosecutors the green light to proceed with the case against Stewart: James Comey. (Stewart had also appeared with Trump on The Apprentice.)

On the same day, Trump also floated commuting the public corruption sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He was convicted on 18 felony counts and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Blago — another alumnus of The Apprentice — probably got Trump’s attention with his May 28, 2018 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, “I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics.”

Like Trump, Blagojevich called his prosecution a “witch hunt.” The US attorney who prosecuted that case was Patrick Fitzgerald.

Roger Stone Gets It

Trump is working his way though a checklist. It’s a mix of crimes that he and his compatriots may have committed (Flynn, Gates, and Papadopoulos have confessed to giving false statements to federal investigators), along with individuals who have connections to one of Trump’s most formidable enemies: James Comey. The message is clear, and Roger Stone said that he, for one, has received it:

“It has to be a signal to Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and even Robert S. Mueller III: Indict people for crimes that don’t pertain to Russian collusion and this is what could happen. The special counsel has awesome powers, as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers.”

The same day, Stone told ABC News, “I will never betray this president. Under no circumstances will I bear false witness against President Trump.”

There are many ways to obstruct justice. Trump is utilizing all of them. And he’s not done yet.

Postscript on Sekulow and A Dangerous Memo

Last week’s post on the Trump-Russia Timeline update discussed Trump’s lawyer-enablers — with a special focus on Emmet Flood and Jay Sekulow. This week was bad for both of them, especially Sekulow.

Recall that in July 2017, Sekulow took to the airwaves, proclaiming repeatedly that Trump — his client — had no involvement whatsoever with Donald Trump Jr.’s misleading statement to the The New York Times about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting that included Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Last week, the Times obtained the Jan. 29, 2018 memo that Sekulow and his then-co-counsel, John Dowd, wrote on Trump’s behalf to special counsel Robert Mueller:

“[T]he President dictated a short but accurate response to the New York Times article on behalf of his son, Donald Trump, Jr.”

From “no involvement whatsoever” to having “dictated” Don Jr.’s statement. More proof that either Sekulow lied publicly for Trump, or Trump lied to him.

Meanwhile, the rest of the 20-page memo that Sekulow and Dowd sent to Mueller is an embarrassment to the legal profession. For example, it relies on the wrong statute to claim that Trump could not have obstructed justice in his conversations with then-FBI Director James Comey about “letting Flynn go.” They ignore altogether the correct statute, which destroys their argument.

In substance and style, the memo’s legal positions would be laughable, if they weren’t so frightening. With respect to the Trump-Russia investigation, Sekulow and Dowd suggest that Trump can do whatever he wants and the law cannot touch him. Trump’s enablers with legal degrees have become a mortal threat to democracy and the rule of law.

Where is Emmet Flood? As his reputation slides down Mt. Trump, he is nowhere to be found. But history will record his guilt by association. Flood’s sins of omission are no less damning than Sekulow’s sins of commission.

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

DEC. 15, 2016: Bannon, Flynn and Kushner Meet Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi; Gerson Surfaces; Nader Nearby (revision of previous entry)

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

MAR. 4, 2017: Trumps Asks Sessions To “Unrecuse” Himself

AUG. 25, 2017: Trump Pardons Arpaio; Warner Concerned About “Message”

NOV. 21, 2017: Trump’s Lawyers Talk With Mueller About Possible Trump Interview

JAN. 8, 2018: Trump’s Lawyers Talk Again With Mueller about Possible Trump Interview

JAN. 10, 2018: Trump Waffles on Mueller Interview (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 29, 2018: Trump’s Lawyers Resist Mueller Interview

APR. 13, 2018: Trump Pardons Libby

MAY 29, 2018: Gowdy Defends FBI and DOJ

MAY 30, 2018: Trump Renews Attack on Sessions

MAY 30-31, 2018: Trump’s Twitter Rampage Over Russia Investigation Continues

MAY 31, 2018: Trump Issues Another Pardon; Hints About More With A Comey Connection

MAY 31, 2018: Stone: Trump Pardons “Send a Message”; Stone Receives It

JUNE 1, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller Investigation

JUNE 1-2, 2018: Brennan Attacks Trump; Trump Tweets Back at Brennan and Mueller

JUNE 2, 2018: Trump Tweets In Advance of NYT Story

JUNE 3, 2018: Trump Tweets About Obstruction, Comey, Manafort, and Mueller

When Trump hired Emmet Flood (JD, Yale, ’91) the legal profession consensus was that, at long last, a principled, disciplined, qualified, and widely respected attorney would finally be in charge. The consensus was wrong.

Flood is the featured player in this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline update. In less than a month, he ruined forever a reputation that took him decades to develop. Welcome to the world of Trump’s reverse-King Midas touch afflicting those who become his enablers. For an attorney, it’s an especially ignominious distinction.

Lessons Not Learned

Flood should have known better. Jay Sekulow (JD, Mercer, ’80) is the sole survivor from Trump’s original legal team, and it has cost him dearly. Along with every sentient lawyer, Flood must have felt pain for the entire profession as Sekulow self-destructed.

It began in July 2017, after Don Jr. was caught lying about his June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Jared Kushner (JD/MBA, NYU, ’07), Paul Manafort (JD, Georgetown ’74), and three Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Sekulow hit the national media circuit, proclaiming that Trump himself had nothing to do with his son’s initial false statement. Then the truth emerged: either Sekulow had lied or his client had duped him. No lawyer wants to be the subject of that Hobson’s choice.

Yet Sekulow soldiered on. In February 2018, Politico wrote about Sekulow’s weekly radio program during which he shilled for Trump by attacking the Russia probe. Perhaps he forgot the oath that all lawyers take to uphold the rule of law, along with the legal profession’s ethical rules requiring all attorneys to promote public confidence in the judicial system.

Enter Emmet Flood

But Flood was supposed to be more than just another Sekulow-type Trump lackey. Unlike Sekulow, who from the outset was unqualified for the job of defending Trump, Flood has advised top Republicans (Vice President Dick Cheney during the Valerie Plame episode) and Democrats (President Clinton during his impeachment) through the challenging intersection of law and politics. Flood probably believed that he could avoid landmines that had blown up predecessor legal-enablers such as Marc Kasowitz (JD, Cornell, ’77), John Dowd (JD, Emory, ’65), and Ty Cobb (JD, Georgetown, ’78).

Flood’s first warning sign was Rudy Giuliani (JD, NYU ’68). Prior to Flood, Giuliani had been the most recent addition to Trump’s legal team. The second warning sign came on May 2, when Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued this press release announcing Flood’s arrival:

“Emmet Flood will be joining the White House staff to represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.”

If Flood knew that his publicly stated job description would be helping Trump beat back the “Russia witch hunt” — a stunning official White House declaration — he never should have taken the position. If he didn’t know until Sanders’ announcement, he should have saved himself by resigning immediately and returning to his respected firm law firm, Williams & Connolly. It’s too late now.

Fake “Spy-Gate” Story

Flood knows that Trump traffics in lies and that some are more dangerous than others. Last week’s Big Lie was Trump’s claim that the FBI had planted a spy in his campaign. There was never any evidence to support Trump’s rants. But beginning on May 22, Trump launched “spy-gate.” By the end of the Memorial Day weekend, he’d tweeted 23 more Russia-related attacks on the rule of law.

One of those tweets was Trump’s unprecedented demand: The Justice Department must disclose highly confidential information to Trump’s most complicit GOP congressional ally, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).

[Pro tip known to experienced Trump-Russia Timeline followers: Go to the Trump-Russia Timeline at InvestigateRussia, org and click on Nunes’ name. The resulting entries reveal that he should be a “subject” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, if not a “target.” Nunes was on Trump’s transition team, spoke daily with Mike Flynn in December 2016 (when Flynn was talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions), and has been a key player in Trump’s efforts to derail the Russia probe. (E.g., Nunes led the phony “unmasking” controversy; he made the “midnight run” of White House documents back to the White House; he championed bogus issues relating to the FBI’s request for a FISA warrant on Carter Page. And so on and so on and so on…]

Nunes’ favorite red herring is attacking the FBI and the Justice Department. Most recently, he has been seeking information about a specific person who became an FBI informant during the Bureau’s counterintelligence investigation of Russians trying to infiltrate the Trump campaign. No prior president has ever attempted to get the FBI or the Department of Justice to divulge such information during an ongoing investigation, much less an investigation involving that president’s own campaign.

Trump’s demand was actually a ham-handed effort to learn what evidence special counsel Robert Mueller has on him and his colleagues. Giuliani admitted it:

“We want to see how the briefing went to today and how much we learned from it. If we learned a good deal from it, it will shorten that whole process considerably… What I need to know is, ‘What’s the basis for their doing it?’ Most important, ‘What did the informant produce?'”

Where Was Emmet Flood?

Into this mess walked Emmet Flood — literally. Although Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said previously that no one from the White House would attend the meeting between Nunes, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and senior leaders from the FBI and DOJ, Flood entered the room with chief of staff John Kelly.

Neither Kelly nor Flood had any legitimate reason for attending that meeting. Consistent with long-standing norms, they should have remained far away from a confidential session during which the FBI and the Justice Department would be discussing an investigation into the person who happens to be their boss. Trump is already a “subject” of the probe, yet Flood — a lawyer who knows better — proceeded anyway.

Complicit Lawyer-Enablers

Before the meeting, Trump had tweeted his latest Big Lie eight times. Immediately thereafter — from Friday, May 25 through Tuesday morning, May 29 — he posted another 16 tweets railing about his phony “spy-gate” claim, repeating assaults on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and even asserting that Mueller would “meddle” in the upcoming midterm election. Meanwhile, Giuliani declared Mueller’s investigation “illegitimate.”

Where is Emmet Flood now? It was bad enough that he walked into the Trump assault on democracy in the first place. He has no excuse for staying there as his new client undermines the rule of law by attacking an investigation that has already yielded 22 indictments (including five guilty pleas).

History will judge harshly Flood and others on the long list of Trump’s enablers with law degrees, including Kushner, Manafort, Mike Pence (JD, Indiana-Robert McKinney School of Law, ’86), Kellyanne Conway (JD, George Washington, ’92), Reince Priebus (JD, Miami, ’98), Don McGahn (JD, Widener, ’94), and numerous members of Congress (including Sen. Mitch McConnell, JD, Kentucky, ’67) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (JD, South Carolina, ’89).

None of Trump’s enablers will recover their reputations. Emmet Flood is different from the others in only one respect: he had far more to lose.

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

NEW: SEPT. 18, 2016: Stone Wants Info From Assange

NEW: JAN. 9, 2017: Vekselberg Meets With Cohen

REVISED: JAN. 20, 2017: Vekselberg, Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and Butina Attend Trump Inauguration Festivities; Cohen Gets Big Contract

NEW: MAY 21, 2018: Trump Meets With Wray, Rosenstein and Coats

NEW: MAY 22, 2018: Cohen’s Business Partner Pleads Guilty

NEW: MAY 22, 2018: Trump Continues Tweeting About “Spies” In His Campaign

NEW: MAY 23, 2018: Trump Twitter Barrage About Campaign “Spies” Persists

NEW: MAY 23, 2018: Mueller: “Ongoing Criminal Investigation with Multiple Lines of Non-Public Inquiry”

NEW: MAY 24, 2018: Trump Continues Tweeting About Bogus “Spy-gate”

NEW: MAY 24, 2018: Trump Resumes Attack on Comey

NEW: MAY 24, 2018: White House Meeting Among Rosenstein, Wray, Coats, Kelly, and Congressional Leaders

NEW: MAY 24, 2018: Giuliani: “We Want To See How The Briefing Went Today”

NEW: MAY 25-29, 2018: Trump’s Memorial Day Weekend: 16 Tweets About the Russia Investigation and Spies

NEW: MAY 25, 2018: Deripaska Resigns From Rusal Board

 NEW: MAY 25, 2018: Manafort’s Virginia Trial Reset For July 24

NEW: MAY 25, 2018: Giuliani Wants Briefing on Classified Info

NEW: MAY 27, 2018: Guiliani: “The Basis of Mueller’s Appointment is Illegitimate”

.

Russia wasn’t the only foreign government trying to help Trump win the election. Last week’s bombshell on that subject competed for attention with two other big stories:

— The Senate Judiciary Committee released interview transcripts relating to the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump’s top campaign advisers and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton; and

— Trump made an unprecedented demand: The Justice Department should investigate the unfounded claim that the FBI had placed spies in his 2016 presidential campaign. In other words, Trump is now openly issuing orders in an investigation for which he is a subject.

But an August 2016 rendezvous that Erik Prince arranged between Donald Trump Jr. and George Nader as an emissary from two foreign powers could reverberate beyond wherever those two stories lead. At a minimum, it sure looks like Prince and Don Jr. have a serious legal problem. And that is very bad news for Trump.

Erik Prince Testifies

For a long time, Prince has been a featured player on the Trump-Russia Timeline. On Nov. 30, 2017, here’s what he told House Intelligence Committee:

— He had no formal role in the Trump campaign, except as a donor, fundraiser, and occasional supplier of foreign policy position papers to Steve Bannon. (Prince did admit to having a Trump sign on his lawn. That sarcastic comment typified his cavalier and irreverent congressional performance; the joke is now on him.)

— He had minimal interactions with Don Jr. (“I met him at a campaign event… I ran into him a couple of times when I was up there [at Trump Tower] during the transition.”).

— His January 2017 meeting with a Russian close to Putin in the Seychelles was a chance encounter having nothing to do with the incoming Trump administration or its policies.

The Truth Emerges

Now go to the Trump-Russia Timeline, click on Prince’s name, and see what the truth looks like.

— In August 2016, Prince set up a meeting that included Don Jr., Nader as an emissary from the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and a specialist at social media manipulation.Through Nader, Saudi Arabia and UAE offered their assistance to help Trump win the election.

— Witnesses to the January 2017 Seychelles meeting have contradicted Prince’s account. They say it was an organized gathering aimed at easing US-Russia relations.

It’s worth noting here that prior to Prince’s congressional testimony in November 2017, he visited the office of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) — Trump’s principal Republican congressional ally in the effort to derail special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. In March 2018, Prince co-hosted a fundraiser for “Putin’s favorite congressman”, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).

And Then There’s Don Jr.

Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 7, 2017, Donald Trump Jr. provided answers that lined up nicely with Prince’s but, like Prince’s, are now problematic:

“Q: We’ve talked a lot about Russia. So I have some broader questions about other foreign governments. Did other foreign governments offer or provide assistance to the Trump campaign?

“Don Jr: None that I’m aware of.

“Q: Did other foreign nationals offer or provide assistance to the Trump campaign?

“Don Jr: No.

“Q: Did you directly or indirectly seek foreign government or foreign nationals assistance for the Trump campaign?

“Don Jr: No.

“Q: Are you aware of anyone else seeking foreign government or foreign nationals assistance for the Trump campaign?

“Don Jr: I’m not.

“Q: Did you ever tell anyone that you or the Trump campaign would be receptive to offers of assistance from foreign governments or foreign nationals?

“Don Jr: No.” (Transcript pp. 208-209)

Through his attorney, Don Jr. acknowledged on May 20, 2018, that the August 2016 meeting occurred:

“Prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with Erik Prince, George Nader and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it.”

The Problem With Lies

So it seems that yet another “Flynn situation” has emerged. That is, it sure looks like Erik Prince and Donald Trump Jr. made statements to federal investigators that weren’t true. Why? Even more damning than Flynn’s dissembling about his communications with Russians during the transition, Prince and Don Jr. may be at the center of a more important unfolding storyline: If other foreign governments wanted to help Trump win the election, Prince could be a matchmaker and Don Jr. would be all ears.

That’s not good.

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

JAN. 19, 2016: Goldstone Pushes Russian Social Media Campaign; Graff Responds

FEB. 29, 2016: Agalarov Sends Trump A Super-Tuesaday Greeting

JUNE 8, 2016: Goldstone Offers Trump Help From Russian Social Media Giant

JUNE 9, 2016: Don Jr., Manafort, Kushner Meet With Russian Lawyer (revision of previous entry)

JUNE 14, 2016: Goldstone Emails Emin Agalarov and Ike Kaveladze (revision of previous entry)

JUNE 29, 2016: Goldstone Again Pitches Help From Russian Social Media

AUG. 3, 2016: Don Jr. Meets With Emissary From Saudi Arabia and UAE

AUG. 17, 2016: Trump Receives First National Security Briefing (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 11, 2017: Cohen Falsely Claims No Trump-Russia Contacts

JUNE 2-5, 2017: Goldstone Responds to Garten

JUNE 27, 2017: Goldstone Complains To Emin Agalarov About Heat From June 9, 2016 Meeting

JULY 9, 2017: Goldstone Complains About Publicity Surrounding June 2016 Trump Tower Meeting

JULY 9-10, 2017: Goldstone Seeks Help Responding To Media Stories About June 2016 Meeting

JULY 10, 2017: Emin Agalarov on Trump Tower Meeting: “No Comment”

JULY 11, 2017: “Why Did He Release This E-Mail Admitting Collusion?”

SEPT. 7, 2017: Don Jr. Talks to Senate Intelligence Committee (revision of previous entry)

NOV. 30, 2017: Prince Testifies Before House Intelligence Committee (revision of previous entry)

APR. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Stormy Daniels (revision of previous entry)

MAY 15, 2018: Putin Drives Across New Bridge Connecting Russia and Crimea

MAY 15, 2018: Trump Tweets “Witch Hunt” “No Collusion”

MAY 15, 2018: Federal Judge Denies Manafort Motion to Dismiss Indictment

MAY 15, 2018: Trump Eliminates Top Cybersecurity Policy Coordinator

MAY 15-16, 2018: Trump Belatedly Reports Cohen Reimbursement

MAY 16, 2018: Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats Issue Preliminary Findings on June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting

MAY 16, 2018: Senate Intelligence Committee Report Disputes House Report: Putin Wanted Trump to Win

MAY 17, 2018: Trump Tweets “No Collusion” “No Obstruction” “Witch Hunt”

MAY 17, 2018: Manafort’s Former Son-In-Law Makes Plea Deal

MAY 18-20, 2018: Trump Tweets Culminate Demanding DOJ Investigation

MAY 20, 2018: Rosenstein Responds To Trump Demand

MAY 20, 2018: RNC Has Paid Almost $500,000 In Legal Fees to Hicks and Others

MAY 21, 2018: Trump’s Twitter-Storm Against Russia Investigation Continues

The drumbeat is underway. Trump’s enablers are using the one-year anniversary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment to call for an end of the Trump-Russia investigation, As the Trump-Russia Timeline demonstrates, the chorus is the culmination of a systematic effort that began within days of Mueller’s appointment. For a sample, consider these entry titles from the Timeline:

MAY 18, 2017: Trump Denounces Special Counsel

MAY 19, 2017: Reuters Reports White House Lawyers Reviewing Ways to Undermine Mueller

SOMETIME IN JUNE 2017: Trump Wants Mueller Fired; McGahn Threatens To Resign

JUNE 12, 2017: Trump Is Rumored to Consider Firing Mueller

JULY 20, 2017: Reports About White House Efforts to Limit or Block Mueller Investigation

JULY 25, 2017: Trump Says Mueller’s Job Is Not ‘Safe’

AUG. 7, 2017: Trump Asks GOP Senators To End Trump-Russia Investigation

OCT. 27, 2017: Trump Tweets About Russia Investigation Costs

SHORTLY AFTER DEC. 5, 2017: Trump Considers Firing Mueller, Again

JAN. 24, 2018: Trump Says He Was Only “Fighting Back”; Hopes Mueller Will Be Fair

And so on, and so on, and so on…

That doesn’t count Trump’s tweets, or the complicit GOP team members of Congress — especially Rep. Devin Nunes — who have pursued diversionary attacks aimed at undermining the investigation, the Justice Department, and the FBI.

What Worries Pence?

Until last week, Mike Pence had refrained from critical commentary about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. But as three prisoners were returning from North Korea, Pence urged Mueller to shut it down:

“It’s been about a year since this investigation began… In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up. And I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.”

For perspective, the special counsel’s investigation in Iran-Contra took more than six years; Whitewater consumed more than four. And in their first year, neither had yielded as many indictments and guilty pleas as Mueller’s investigation has.

If you wonder why Pence wants the investigation over, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on his name. Pence has plenty to fear from a thorough understanding of his involvement in the Trump-Russia story. After all, he was head of the Trump transition team. Running Pence’s name through the Timeline filter reveals that he has a big “Flynn problem” and was a central player in the Comey firing cover-up. As a potential disinfectant, sunlight is not Pence’s friend.

Russians Penetrated Voter Registration Systems

Meanwhile, Trump dithers as a hostile foreign power continues its massive cyberattack on American democracy.

Remember the Election Day reports of citizens who couldn’t vote because of confusion in voter rolls and problems with voting machines? The Senate Intelligence Committee released a preliminary report confirming that from “at least as early as 2014 through Election Day 2016,” Russian government-affiliated actors engaged in cyberattacks on at least 21 state election systems. And to some unknown degree, they succeeded:

“In a small number of states, Russian-affiliated cyber actors were able to gain access to restricted elements of election infrastructure. In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data….”

Long ago, the media should have stopped saying that Trump won the election “fair and square.” He didn’t, and that’s why Trump keeps obsessing about Hillary Clinton and the election. He’s using every weapon at his disposable to block the investigation aimed at uncovering the whole truth.

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

2014 to Nov. 8, 2016: Russian Cyber-Actors Target 2016 Election Cycle

DEC. 10, 2015: Flynn Receives Money From RT (revision of previous entry)

MAR. 29, 2016: Trump Hires Manafort

OCT. 17, 2016: Cohen Creates Shell Company

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

BETWEEN JANUARY 2017 AND AUGUST 2017: Oligarch-Linked Firm Pays Cohen $500,000

JAN. 20, 2017: Vekselberg, Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and Butina Attend Trump Inauguration Festivities (revision of previous entry)

APR. 3, 2017: Cohen and Broidy Become RNC National Deputy Finance Co-Chairs

APR. 4, 2018: Mueller Quizzing Oligarchs (revision of previous entry)

AROUND APR. 28, 2018: Giuliani Meets With Mueller; Mueller Rejects Written Responses in Lieu of Trump Testimony

MAY 8, 2018: Emerdata Shutting Down, Too

MAY 9, 2018: Pence Says Mueller Should “Wrap It Up.”

[NOTE: My May 1, 2018 interview on “Background Briefing with Ian Masters” discusses the latest Trump-Russia developments. The Trump-Russia Timeline also appears at investigaterussia.org.] 

Last week, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Rudy Giuliani occupied the center ring of Donald Trump’s scandal circus. But important things were happening in the Trump-Russia ring, too. They’re less sensational and, therefore, relegated to the media’s back burner. But they are a useful reminder of the central theme that is easily lost in Trump’s continuing chaos:

Russia helped Trump win the election. He wants desperately to end the resulting investigation into how and why.

Sanctions

A key strand of the story involves Russian sanctions. For years, Putin has wanted them lifted. From the beginning of the presidential campaign, Trump made clear his desire to accommodate him.

After the election, Trump resisted a unified Congress that wanted tougher Russian sanctions for interfering with the 2016 election. Eventually, he signed the bill into law, but not before legislators made clear that they had veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate. Undeterred, Trump then dragged his feet in implementing the sanctions. Now he’s softening them.

The latest example involves Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Apr. 6, 2018: Great fanfare surrounds the list of newly sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, who is Manafort’s former business associate.

Apr. 20, 2018: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses the new sanctions with the Russian Finance Minister.

May 1, 2018: The Trump administration amends its “blacklist” to pave the way for Deripaska’s company to escape the new sanctions.

Obstruction

Likewise, the supposedly tough stance that the Trump administration adopted in permitting the sale of antitank missiles to Ukrainian resistance fighters against Russia may have produced a benefit to Trump after all. In early April 2018, as the Pentagon prepared to finalize the sale, the Ukrainian government ordered its chief anticorruption prosecutor to freeze ongoing investigations into Paul Manafort. The prosecutor’s previous offer to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe became moot. The US completed the shipment of the missiles on Apr. 30, 2018.

Meanwhile, Trump’s obstruction efforts — with the active assistance of complicit congressional Republicans — continue to hide in plain sight. On Apr. 30, 2018, the public learned that “Freedom Caucus” members had drafted articles of impeachment directed at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. At the same time, Giuliani’s botched rollout of the latest pretext for firing FBI Director James Comey — that Comey refused to say Trump wasn’t a “target” of the FBI’s investigation — overshadowed a more ominous development: FBI lawyers James Baker and Lisa Page resigned.

Baker and Page are corroborating witnesses for Comey’s statement that Trump had spoken to him about “letting [Mike Flynn] go.” That made them Trump’s enemies. He subjected them to relentless attacks, and now they have left the bureau.

When it comes to undermining the investigation into Trump-Russia, Trump will do whatever it takes to save himself. Unfortunately, he has no shortage of eager accomplices. And Trump is still tweeting that what the law calls obstruction of justice, he regards as “fighting back.”

Here’s a complete list of entries in the latest Trump-Russia Timeline update:

2006: Trump Begins Decade-Long Cash Spending Spree

OCT. 28, 2016: Cohen Signs Non-Disclosure Agreement With Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels)

BETWEEN OCTOBER 2017 and JANUARY 2018: Trump Campaign Pays More Than $200,000 Toward Cohen’s Legal Expenses

FEB. 13 2018: Cohen Issues Statement on Stormy Daniels Scandal

MAR. 5, 2018:  Mueller Confirms Trump Is ‘Subject’ of Probe; Raises Possibility of Trump Subpoena; Reports Underway

MAR. 6, 2018: Stephanie Clifford (aka “Stormy Daniels”) Sues Trump and Cohen

MAR. 16, 2018: Cambridge Analytica Backers and Executives Form New Group: Emerdata

APR. 4, 2018: Mueller Quizzing Oligarchs (revision of previous entry)

APR. 5, 2018: Trump Deflects Questions About Stormy Daniels Payoff to Cohen

APR. 6, 2018: Treasury Dept. Sanctions Oligarchs and Putin Cronies (revision of previous entry)

EARLY APRIL 2018: Ukraine Freezes Its Manafort Investigations, Gets US Missiles

APR. 23, 2018: Trump Softens Sanctions on Deripaska’s Company (revision of previous entry)

APR. 25, 2018: Cohen Asserts Fifth Amendment Concerning Payment to Stephanie Clifford (revision of previous entry)

APR. 30, 2018: House Republicans Draft Impeachment Articles Against Rosenstein; Rosenstein Responds

APRIL 30, 2018: Mueller’s 49 Questions For Trump

MAY 1, 2018: Not Really Mueller’s 49 Questions

MAY 2, 2018: Trump Tweets: “No Collusion” – “Hoax” – Threatens To “Get Involved” With Justice Department

MAY 2, 2018: Cambridge Analytica File For Bankruptcy, But Executives Might Continue Business Under New Name: Emerdata

MAY 2, 2018: Cobb Steps Down; Emmet T. Flood Steps In

MAY 2, 2018: DOJ Denies House Request For Mueller Memo

MAY 2, 2018: Trump Tweet Implies No Time For Mueller Interview

MAY 2, 2018: Giuliani Offers New Defense To Comey Firing

MAY 2, 2018: Giuliani Undercuts Cohen’s Payoff Story

MAY 3, 2018: Trump Tweets After Giuliani Speaks About Daniels Payoff

MAY 3, 2018: Giuliani Digs Deeper Hole On $130,000 Payoff

MAY 4, 2018: Trump: Rudy Will “Get His Facts Straight”

MAY 4, 2018: Baker and Page Resign From FBI

MAY 5, 2018: Guiliani Says Trump Could Ignore Subpoena and/or Take the Fifth Amendment

MAY 6, 2018: Trump Tweets About “Witch Hunt” and Mueller’s Team

[NOTE: In case you missed it, here’s the link to my Apr. 27, 2018 appearance on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” (MSNBC).]

Last week, Trump threw out plenty of shiny objects to divert attention from the story he wants to avoid: Michael Cohen. It now appears that Trump is throwing Cohen under the bus.

Cohen’s background is interesting. Admittedly a poor student, he graduated from one of the worst law schools in the country and then amassed great wealth relatively quickly. As Cohen and his family members purchased multiple units in Trump buildings, he came to Trump’s attention and accepted a job for the organization in 2006.

He became known as Trump’s “Fixer.” Now he’s in a fix.

Unwanted Attention

Occasionally, Cohen appeared as a Trump surrogate during the campaign. But his more important contributions to the cause were happening behind the scenes. Cohen’s most recent notoriety arises from his role in allegedly orchestrating a $130,000 payoff to porn star Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) less than two weeks before the 2016 election. In return, Clifford claims, she agreed not to disclose her prior affair with Trump.

But there’s much more to the Trump-Cohen story. For a sense of its depth and breadth, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on Cohen’s name. Here’s a sample:

May 2013: Cohen confirms that Trump has commissioned research on a potential run for the presidency.

October 2015 – January 2016: Trump and a childhood friend, Felix Sater — another name worthy of a click on the Trump-Russia Timeline name filter — work together on a project. As Trump claims repeatedly on the campaign trail that he has “no business deals” with Russia, he signs a letter of intent that Cohen and Sater have developed for a Trump Tower-Moscow.

January 2016: When the Trump Tower-Moscow project sputters, Cohen seeks help from Putin’s spokesperson and right hand man to get it moving.

January 2017: Sater and a pro-Putin Ukrainian politician meet with Cohen at a midtown Manhattan hotel where they give him a proposed Ukrainian peace plan. Cohen is supposed to deliver the plan to then-National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. It would eliminate US sanctions against Russia.

Under the Bus

Cohen has denied wrongdoing. But the recent FBI raid on his home, office, and apartment sent Trump into orbit — in person and on Twitter.

April 13: Jay Goldberg–one of Trump’s longtime legal advisers–warns Trump that Cohen will “flip” and cooperate with federal prosecutors, rather than face criminal prosecution and the risk of a lengthy prison term.

Also on April 13: Trump calls Cohen to “check-in.” We don’t know whether Trump’s conversation with Cohen occurs before or after Goldberg’s warning. Also unknown is whether Cohen gets the equivalent of the “stay strong” admonition that Trump reportedly gave Mike Flynn months before Flynn pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

April 24: A reporter asks if Trump is considering a pardon for Cohen. “Stupid question,” Trump says without answering.

April 26: A day after Cohen asserts his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels case, Trump phones into a Fox & Friends interview and rails against former FBI Director James Comey and Mueller’s investigation. At times, he threatens to take control of the Justice Department and end the “nonsense of collusion with Russia.”

Meanwhile, as the initial smiles on the faces of the Fox & Friends hosts morph into more worrisome expressions, Trump tries to distance himself from Cohen. But after Trump tries to minimize the amount of legal work that Cohen did for him, out tumbles this admission: “Michael would represent me, and represent me on some things. He represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me.”

Like all Trump loyalists who outlive their usefulness to the boss, Michael Cohen is headed toward his place under the Trump bus.

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

2006: Cohen Joins Trump Organization

OCT. 12, 2015: Sater Email To Cohen Re: Trump Tower Project

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

DEC. 2, 2015: Mike Flynn and His Son Meet with Russian Ambassador

JAN. 14, 2016: Cohen Contacts Peskov to Move Trump Tower Deal Forward

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

JUNE 10, 2016: Agalarov Delivers Birthday Gift to Trump

JUNE 14, 2016: Goldstone Emails Emin Agalarov and Ike Kaveladze (revision of previous entry)

JULY 15, 2016: Flynn Predicts Cyber-actions Against DNC

SEPT. 26, 2016: “It Could Be Someone Sitting On Their Bed That Weighs 400 pounds”

NOV. 28, 2016: Goldstone Contacts Graff

JULY 8, 2017: White House Scrambles to Deal with Forthcoming NYT Story; Trump Supervises Media Response (revision of previous entry)

JULY 26, 2017: FBI Raids Manafort’s Home (revision of previous entry)

APR. 23, 2018: Flynn’s Son Implies Pence Lied

APR. 23, 2018: Trump Softens Sanctions on Deripaska’s Company

APR. 24, 2018: House Democrats Interview Wylie; Republicans Boycott

APR. 24, 2018: Trump Response to Question About Possible Pardon For Cohen: “Stupid question”

APR. 25, 2018: Cohen Asserts Fifth Amendment

APR. 26, 2018: Trump Complains about FBI; Threatens Involvement in Justice Department

APR. 26, 2018: Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Bill to Protect Mueller

APR. 27, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey, Again

APR. 27, 2018: House Intelligence Committee Issues Report; Trump Claims Exoneration

[NOTE: Great news! Starting this week, in addition to BillMoyers.com, the complete Trump-Russia Timeline will also appear at the website for the Committee to Investigate Russia. Expanding the group of concerned citizens seeking to remain informed is always healthy for democracy. At this moment in the great American experiment, it’s essential.]

He’s b-a-a-a-a-c-k.

Rudy Giuliani earns the newest Trump-Russia Timeline “pop-up” bubble and name filter.

On Thursday, April 19, Giuliani joined Trump’s legal defense team. It’s a curious choice. For more than a year, he served as Trump’s most faithful campaign surrogate — defending Trump’s crudest and cruelest words and deeds. But after the election, Giuliani couldn’t land a job in the new administration. Now he’s Trump’s lawyer. Go figure.

Lawyer as Witness?

What makes Rudy a truly special selection is that he is (or should be) a witness in various investigations relating to Trump and the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller has informed Trump’s lawyers that their client is a “subject” of the Trump-Russia probe — a status no citizen wants. A cynic might suggest that retaining Giuliani allows both men to rely on the attorney-client privilege to get their stories’ straight. At times, the privilege comes in handy, provided the crime-fraud exception doesn’t kick in.

And if you doubt that Giuliani is destined to be a witness, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on his name. Of particular note is a sequence of events shortly before the election:

— Oct. 25-26, 2016: Giuliani says that a “big surprise” is coming.

— Oct. 28: Then-FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress says the FBI is taking another look at new materials relating to its previously closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. (The revelation provides a big boost to Trump and, arguably, puts him in the White House.)

— Oct. 28: Giuliani boasts publicly about how former and acting FBI agents have been telling him about a “revolution inside the FBI” over Comey’s failure in July to recommend the prosecution of Clinton. If Giuliani is telling the truth about his sources, such FBI leaks would be crimes.

— Nov. 4: Giuliani tries to walk back his earlier bravado about receiving inside information from present and former FBI agents. But it’s too late. Comey has already initiated an internal investigation of FBI leaks. The Justice Department’s Inspector General is on the case.

“Trumpland”

Giuliani has a long, deep history with the FBI, especially its New York office. During the 1980s, he served as US Attorney in Manhattan before becoming New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001. In 2014, Giuliani was the keynote speaker at the FBI Agents Association’s (FBIAA) First Annual “G-Man Honors Gala” where he received a distinguished service award named after him. His former law firm — then called Bracewell Giuliani — has long been general counsel to the FBIAA, which represents more than 13,000 active and retired FBI special agents.

During the 2016 election, the FBI’s New York office had such widespread animosity toward Hillary Clinton that it earned a nickname: Trumpland.

A Busy Week

Giuliani’s new assignment highlights this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline update. But Trump’s lawyers come and go, so in the long run of the Trump-Russia scandal, other developments will prove more enduring. Last week, every day produced a new bombshell that reinforced the larger narrative arc.

Sunday. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley announces new sanctions against Russia. But after Trump watches her revelation on national television, he erupts — and then kills the sanctions. Trump’s effort to minimize US sanctions against Russia remains an enduring theme that helps explain why Putin wanted Trump to win the election.

Monday. Michael Cohen’s attorney tells a federal judge that Cohen has had only three law clients since January 2017, one of whom is Trump’s most vocal media supporter: Fox News’ Sean Hannity. But of greater legal significance that day is Trump’s call to “check in” on Cohen. No competent attorney would advise the subject of an ongoing investigation — Trump — to communicate with a witness and thereby create evidence supporting an obstruction of justice charge. Why would Trump take that risk? As a key operator in Trump’s business dealings for the past decade, Cohen knows where bodies are buried — and probably helped to bury them.

Tuesday. Senate Republicans are preparing to move forward with bipartisan legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from Trump. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pronounces it DOA. The Complicit GOP never rests.

Wednesday. Former FBI Director James Comey begins national television appearances promoting his new book. Trump tweets complaints. By midweek, Trump’s comments at a joint press conference (with Japan’s prime minister) demonstrate that he is unglued over the Russia investigation.

Thursday. At the urging of Trump’s defenders in the House, the Justice Department releases redacted copies of Comey’s contemporaneous memos on his early 2017 conversations with Trump. This time, the Complicit GOP missile becomes a boomerang because it corroborates everything Comey has said about those conversations. They’re more evidence that Trump is a liar, not Comey.

Friday. The Democratic National Committee sues the Russian government, WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, and several top Trump campaign advisers over claims relating to the hacking, theft, and dissemination of DNC and Clinton campaign emails.

Saturday-Sunday. Read Trump’s manic tweets and decide for yourself what to make of them. Eleven relate to Trump-Russia.

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

NEW: JULY 28, 2016: Giuliani Says Russians Have Had Clinton Email “For Some Time”

NEW: NOV. 4, 2016: Giuliani Says He Expected Action on Clinton

NEW: NOV. 4, 2016: Senior House Democrats Ask DOJ To Investigate FBI Leaks

NEW: NOV. 4, 2016: Giuliani Walks Back Comments Predicting Action on Clinton

REVISED: JAN. 27, 2017: Trump to Comey: ‘I Need Loyalty’

REVISED: FEB. 8, 2017: Priebus Asks Comey About Flynn; Trump Returns to “Golden Showers Thing”

REVISED: JUNE 8, 2017: Comey Testifies Before Senate Intelligence Committee

NEW: JAN. 22-23, 2018: Trump Pressures Wray and Sessions to Fire Page and Strzok

NEW: APR. 12, 2018: Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target of Russia Probe; Sessions Warns Trump

REVISED: APR. 13, 2018: DOJ Inspector General Issues Report on McCabe; Trump Issues Bizarre Tweet

NEW: APR. 13, 2018: Warning to Trump: Cohen Will “Flip”

NEW: APR. 15, 2018: Trump Halts New Russian Sanctions

NEW: APR. 16, 2018: Sean Hannity Is Cohen’s Client

NEW: APR. 16, 2018: Trump Tweets

NEW: APR. 17, 2018: McConnell Kills Legislation to Protect Mueller

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Stormy Daniels

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey, Again

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Eleven Congressmen Seek Investigations of Clinton, Comey, and Others

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Trump Dodges Question on Firing Rosenstein or Mueller

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Trump Says Nobody’s as Tough on Russia as Donald Trump

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Cohen Drops Lawsuits Against Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: NY State Attorney General Seeks Curb on Presidential Pardon Impact

NEW: APR. 18, 2018: Schiff Seeks to Limit Presidential Pardon Power

NEW: APR. 19, 2018: Giuliani Joins Trump Legal Team; DOJ To Issue Report on FBI Leaks

NEW: APR. 19, 2018: Rosenstein Provides Comey Memos to Congress

NEW: APR. 19, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey Memos and McCabe

NEW: APR. 20, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey and Flynn

NEW: APR. 20, 2018: DNC Sues Russia, Trump Campaign, and WikiLeaks

NEW: APR. 20, 2018: Trump Tweets About DNC Lawsuit, Comey, and Mueller

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About Cohen 

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About DNC Lawsuit, Again

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey, Again

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About Sessions and Rosenstein

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Retweets About Comey Memos and Collusion

NEW: APR. 21, 2018: Trump Keeps Tweeting About Comey

NEW: APR. 22, 2018: Trump Tweets About Sessions and Comey

NEW: APR. 22, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey Memos and Mueller Investigation, Again

Trump calls it “fighting back.” His lawyers should be telling him it fits neatly into the narrative that Trump is obstructing justice.

As this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline update depicts, Trump and the GOP — with Fox News as their reliable delivery vehicle — are orchestrating a public relations assault on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former FBI Director James Comey. As Trump and his defenders flood the airwaves with chaos and confusion, it’s worth remembering the line that Gen. George S. Patton wrote in 1944 and legendary football coach Vince Lombardi repeated twenty years later: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

Comey’s new book is a vivid reminder to a tired nation that he is a central witness against Trump in any obstruction of justice case that special counsel Robert Mueller might bring. Trump’s aggressive turn toward Rosenstein sure looks like a prelude to firing the deputy attorney general who supervises Mueller’s investigation. That would allow Trump to install a lackey who could limit or terminate the probe.

These are perilous times for American democracy and the rule of law.

Here are the latest Trump-Russia Timeline updates:

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015: Ukrainian Billionaire Contributes $150,000 to Trump Foundation

JULY 27, 2016: Stone Says Russians Leaking Hacked Clinton Emails

OCT. 7, 2016: Intelligence Community Publishes Statement on Russian Interference

JAN. 11, 2017: Trump To Comey: “Golden Shower” Claim Cannot Be True

MARCH 22, 2017: Trump Asks Senior Intelligence Officials to Get Comey to Back Off

MARCH 30, 2017: Nunes’ Sources Are Members of the Trump Administration

MARCH 30, 2017: Trump Asks Comey to ‘Lift the Cloud’ of the Russia Investigation

AUG. 30, 2017: Cohen Rebuts ‘Steele Dossier’ and REPLACED with: AUG. 14, 2017: Cohen’s Attorney Rebuts ‘Steele Dossier’

SHORTLY AFTER DEC. 5, 2017: Trump Considers Firing Mueller, Again

APRIL 9, 2018: FBI Raids Michael Cohen

APRIL 9, 2018: Trump Lashes Out After FBI Raid on Cohen

APRIL 10, 2018: Trump Tweets About Cohen Raid and the Russia Investigation 

APRIL 10, 2018: Zuckerberg Testifies Before Congress

APRIL 10, 2018: Trump Believes He Can Fire Mueller

APRIL 10, 2018: NRA Shuts Down Wyden

APRIL 11, 2018: Trump Tweets About $150,000 Payment to His Foundation

APRIL 11, 2018: Trump Tweets: “No Obstruction, (Other Than I Fight Back)”

APRIL 11, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller and Rosenstein Conflicts

APRIL 11, 2018: Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Mueller; Fate Uncertain

APRIL 11-12, 2018: White House Approves GOP Attack on Comey and Rosenstein

APRIL 12, 2018: Trump Won’t Sit for Mueller Interview

APRIL 12, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller

APRIL 13, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey

APRIL 13, 2018: DOJ Inspector General Issues Report on McCabe; Trump Issues Bizarre Tweet

APRIL 13, 2018: Trump Calls Cohen, Pardons Libby

APRIL 13, 2018: Nunes, Gowdy & Goodlatte Demand Comey’s Memos from Rosenstein

APRIL 15, 2018: Trump Tweets About Comey, Mueller, and Clinton

APRIL 16, 2018: Trump Tweets About Clinton, Comey, and McCabe

APRIL 16, 2018: Cohen-Watnick Joins DOJ

Under Justice Department guidelines, “A ‘subject’ of an investigation is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation.” Donald Trump, the president of the United States, is formally the subject of a criminal investigation into unlawful foreign influence in the 2016 presidential election that he won.

Let that sink in.

Consistent with its prior practice, special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team isn’t talking about any of this. That leaves Trump’s team as the “leakers” behind the story about Trump’s status. And they’re trying to spin it as inconsequential because Mueller hasn’t yet designated Trump as a “target.”

Here’s the thing: Some targets don’t know they’re targets until they’re indicted. As the DOJ guidelines state, “A ‘target’ is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant.” [Emphasis supplied]

Moreover, whether a sitting president can ever be indicted is the subject of scholarly debate. Until Mueller determines with reasonable certainty that Trump can be indicted, Trump can’t become a “target” — even for provable crimes.

In other words, Trump — as a “subject” — may already occupy the worst possible status he could possess in the Trump-Russia probe, namely, a criminal who is immune from prosecution until he leaves office.

Let that sink in, too.

Pruitt: Trump’s Ace-In-The-Hole

Since early March, Trump’s lawyers have known about their client’s unfortunate status. The timing now provides a context within which to evaluate Trump’s words and deeds over the past month. In particular, keep an eye on his vigorous defense of embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Here’s why.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to restrict or terminate Mueller’s investigation. One approach he might attempt is to replace Mueller’s immediate supervisor, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein assumed control of the Trump-Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. If Sessions resigns, Trump can appoint an interim Attorney General replacement, provided that the Senate has previously confirmed that individual.

Enter Scott Pruitt. As interim Attorney General, Pruitt would become Mueller’s supervisor.

There are important qualifications. For example, if Trump fires Sessions (rather than forcing his resignation), Trump’s ability to appoint an interim successor AG becomes murkier. Likewise, Pruitt’s “political relationship” with Trump should require Pruitt to recuse himself from any investigation involving Trump. But given Pruitt’s behavior to date, it’s reasonable to assume that he would ignore ethical and legal restraints in gutting Mueller’s investigation.

Trump doesn’t care about Pruitt’s newsworthy ethical lapses or extravagant expenditures of taxpayer monies. Trump views the world through the prism of Trump-Russia. Whatever he does to survive the investigation is collateral damage of no concern to him. Scott Pruitt has demonstrated unwavering fealty to Trump, coupled with a blindness toward legal and ethical norms that apply to everyone else. For him, clipping Mueller’s wings in the service of Trump would be a pleasure.

The Week Wasn’t As Quiet As It Seemed

Two other noteworthy names in this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline Update: Roger Stone keeps moving himself from barrel to barrel; and every day, Erik Prince seems to develop new exposure to charges that he made false statements to Congressional investigators. Click on the Timeline name filter for each of them and see what pops up now.

Here’s a complete list of the new entries in this week’s Timeline Update:

REVISED: JUNE 2014: Massive Facebook Data Leak Underway; Cambridge Analytica in Contact With Russians

NEW: SUMMER 2016: Trump Adviser Goes to FBI With Claimed Access to Clinton Emails

NEW: AUG. 4, 2016: Stone Says “Devastating” WikiLeaks Coming

NEW: AUG. 4, 2016: Stone: “I dined with Julian Assange last night”

NEW: AUG. 5, 2016: Stone Tweets About Clinton’s Emails

REVISED: OCT. 2, 2016: Stone Appears to Predict More Damaging WikiLeaks

NEW: OCT. 3, 2016: Stone Tweets About Clinton and WikiLeaks

NEW: OCT. 5, 2016: Stone Tweets About Assange

NEW: AROUND JAN. 4, 2017: Erik Prince Reportedly Meets with George Nader

NEW: AUG. 2, 2017: Rosenstein Confirms Mueller’s Authority to Investigate Manafort’s Possible Collusion with Russia

NEW: EARLY MARCH 2018: Mueller Confirms Trump Is “Subject” of Probe

NEW: MARCH 9, 2018: Mueller Obtains Another Search Warrant Against Manafort

NEW: DURING THE WEEK OF APRIL 2, 2018: Mueller Questions Trump Business Associate About Foreign Deals

NEW: APRIL 2, 2018: Mueller Outlines Potential Scope of Investigation

NEW: APRIL 3, 2018: Van der Zwaan Sentenced

NEW: APRIL 4, 2018: Facebook Finds More Russian Accounts; More Cambridge Analytica Problems

NEW: APRIL 4, 2018: Mueller Quizzing Oligarchs

NEW: APRIL 6, 2018: Trump Reportedly Contemplates Replacing Sessions With Besieged EPA Administrator Pruitt; Trump Tweets

NEW: APRIL 6, 2018: Treasury Dept. Sanctions Oligarchs and Putin Cronies

NEW: APRIL 7, 2018: Trump Tweets About DOJ and FBI, Again

NEW: APRIL 8, 2018: Trump Tweets About Clinton and DOJ, Again

NEW: APRIL 8, 2018: Trump Finally Criticizes Putin

[Note: If you’re in the neighborhood… 

On Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm, I’ll be talking about the Trump-Russia Timeline at the Wilmette (IL) Public Library. Free admission and open to the public.]

Spring break, Passover, and Holy Week produced a relatively quiet period for the Trump-Russia Timeline. The line of the week goes to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). On Easter Sunday, he said, “The problem is that Russia is running wild, whatever we are doing is not working and the president for some reason has a hard time pushing back against Putin.”

“For some reason…” What could it possibly be?

Meanwhile, This Week’s Update Reveals…

— The burgeoning Cambridge Analytica scandal may reach Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and his unsuccessful presidential bid. After Walker dropped out of the race, several of his staffers became executives for the company.

— Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, apparently knew in August 2016 that he was dealing with a Russian who had continuing ties to Russian intelligence. (That revelation required adding a new pop-up bubble for Manafort-Gates associate Konstantin Kilimnik.)

— When Trump expelled Russian diplomats, it was more for show than for real.

— The complicit GOP-controlled Congress’ diversionary efforts to undermine the FBI and Justice Department (and thereby support Trump’s scorched-earth attack on the world’s premier law enforcement agency) continues.

— And anyone who believes that Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein have job security is not paying attention. In an April 2 tweet attacking the Department of Justice, Trump put quotation marks around “Justice.” Firing Sessions and/or Rosenstein and substituting a Trump puppet to supervise special counsel Robert Mueller remains Trump’s easiest path to gutting the Trump-Russia investigation.

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

LATE 2013: Bannon and the Beginning of Cambridge Analytica (revision of previous entry)

EARLY SUMMER 2014: Peter Thiel’s Palantir Connected to Cambridge Analytica

SEPT. 21, 2015: Walker Drops Out; Staffers Become Cambridge Analytica Execs

EARLY AUGUST 2016: Manafort Meets with Kilimnik

SEPTEMBER 2016: Skadden Attorney Communicates With Gates and “Person A” (revision of previous entry)

SOMETIME BETWEEN JUNE 16, 2017 and OCTOBER 27, 2017: Trump’s Lawyer Reportedly Raised Prospect of Pardons for Flynn and Manafort

MARCH 22, 2018: House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Rosenstein

MAR. 26, 2018: Trump Expels Russian Diplomats, Closes Seattle Consulate, Russia Retaliates; But There’s a Catch (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 27, 2018: NRA Admits Accepting Foreign Contributions; Wyden Presses on Torshin

MARCH 27, 2018: Sens. Coons, Tillis Support Mueller

MARCH 28, 2018: Sessions Rebuffs GOP Request for Another Special Counsel, Says IG Already Investigating

APRIL 1, 2018: Graham Perplexed on Trump-Putin

APRIL 2, 2018: Trump Attacks Justice Department

NOTE: On Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm, I’ll be talking about the Trump-Russia Timeline at the Wilmette (IL) Public Library. Free admission and open to the public.

One of this week’s Trump-Russia nuggets was lost in Trump chaos. To be sure, Stormy Daniels is not the diversion Trump would have chosen. Nevertheless, the media aren’t talking about Guccifer 2.0, and that’s unfortunate.

In January 2017, US intelligence agencies assessed with “high confidence” that Russian intelligence agencies had used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and WikiLeaks to disseminate stolen Hillary Clinton emails. Last week, we learned that Guccifer 2.0 was actually a Russian military intelligence officer.

To understand the importance of the latest Guccifer 2.0 revelation, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and click on Roger Stone’s name. Here’s a sample of the entries that pop up:

JUNE 15, 2016: Guccifer 2.0 claims responsibility for the hack of the Democratic National Committee computer system and begins posting the stolen DNC documents online.

AUG. 5, 2016: Writing for Breitbart News, Roger Stone asserts that Guccifer 2.0 has nothing to do with Russia. A few days later, Stone boasts that he is in contact with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange.

AUG. 12, 2016: Guccifer 2.0 posts more stolen DNC documents.

AUG. 13-15, 2016: Stone communicates directly with Guccifer 2.0.

AUG. 15, 2016: Guccifer 2.0 posts more stolen DNC documents.

As he exchanges more direct messages with Guccifer 2.0, Stone continues to declare publicly that he is communicating with Assange. As summer turns to fall, Stone also issues prescient tweets about WikiLeaks’ ongoing dissemination of stolen DNC documents, including this one on Aug. 21, 2016: “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary.” And another on Oct 2, 2016: “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.”

WikiLeaks’ drip-drip-drip of DNC documents continues through the election, and so do Roger Stone’s direct communications with WikiLeaks.

BUSTED!

On JAN. 3, 2017, the CIA, FBI and NSA release their unclassified report, concluding unanimously, “Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.” The three intelligence agencies agree that “the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible.”

The report also states that WikiLeaks had been Russia’s conduit for the effort, writing, “We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release US victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks.”

Roger Stone could not have been pleased on MARCH 22, 2018, when The Daily Beast reported how Guccifer 2.0 blew its cover to reveal the Russian behind the curtain.

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

JUNE 2014: Massive Facebook Data Leak Underway; Cambridge Analytica in Contact With Russians (revision of previous entry)

JULY 22, 2014: Giuliani’s Law Firm Warns Cambridge Analytica

NOV. 4, 2014: Cambridge Analytica Works on Midterm Elections, Helps Tillis Win Senate Seat

EARLY 2015: Trump Campaign Retains Parscale (revision of previous entry)

SOMETIME BEFORE JUNE 16, 2015: Lewandowski Meets with Cambridge Analytica

JUNE 2016: Kushner Takes Control of Trump Digital Effort and Hires Cambridge Analytica (revision of previous entry)

JUNE 15, 2016: Russian Hacker Leaks DNC Documents (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 9, 2016: Papadopoulos Gets Green Light for Interfax Interview

NOV. 10, 2016: Zuckerberg Rejects “Crazy Idea” that Facebook Affected Election (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 20, 2017: Leahy and Franken Ask FBI to Investigate Sessions’ Testimony

APRIL 28, 2017: Leahy and Franken Request Briefing on Sessions Investigation

MAY 12, 2017: Leahy and Franken Ask McCabe for Status Report on Sessions Investigation

MAR. 18, 2018: Prince Hosts Fundraiser for Rohrabacher

MARCH 19, 2018: Trump Tweets “Witch Hunt”

MARCH 19, 2018: GOP Leaders See No Need to Protect Mueller

MARCH 20, 2018: Trump Congratulates Putin on Election Victory

MARCH 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About Mueller, Again

MARCH 21, 2018: Trump Tweets About Putin

MARCH 21, 2018: Sessions Responds to Reports of Perjury Investigation

MARCH 22, 2018: Dowd Resigns From Trump’s Legal Team

MARCH 22, 2018: House Intelligence Committee Votes to Release GOP Report; Trump Tweets

MARCH 22, 2018: Trump Replaces McMaster With Bolton

MARCH 25, 2018: Trump Tweets About Losing His Lawyers

MARCH 26, 2018: Trump To Expel 60 Russian Diplomats and Close Seattle Consulate

This video is one of the many reasons Trump wants to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Watch it. A British public-service broadcaster conducted an undercover investigation of an important player in the Trump-Russia scandal: Cambridge Analytica.

For context, go to the Trump-Russia Timeline and select these five names on the Timeline filter: Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon, Facebook, the Mercer Family, and Brad Parscale. Here’s a small sample of what emerges:

JUNE 2014: Steve Bannon had figured prominently in the creation of Cambridge Analytica. He even chose the firm’s name. Funding came from a $15 million investment by conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer. Thanks to the firm’s arrangement with a Russian-American academic in Great Britain, Cambridge Analytica becomes the beneficiary of Facebook’s massive data leak. Fifty million user profiles make their way to Cambridge Analytica’s voter targeting and messaging operation.

JULY 2014: An American attorney advising the firm warns that the company’s structure and activities could violate laws prohibiting foreign influence in US elections.

BEGINNING IN JUNE 2015 AND CONTINUING THROUGH AUGUST 2017: 150 Million Americans see social media content from a Russian-government linked troll farm. Among other media vehicles supporting Trump’s election, Russians are buying geographically-targeted political ads on Facebook.

MID-MAY 2016: Bannon introduces the Trump campaign to Cambridge Analytica. The campaign is all-ears.

JUNE 2016: Jared Kushner takes control of Trump’s digital campaign and hires Cambridge Analytica. With the assistance of embedded Facebook employees, the campaign’s digital director, Brad Parscale, takes special pride in targeting and messaging particular voters. Around the same time, Cambridge Analytica’s president asks WikiLeaks to share stolen Hillary Clinton emails so his firm can help disseminate them.

AUGUST 2016: Cambridge Analytica board member Rebekah Mercer (Robert’s daughter), tells the firm’s president to contact WikiLeaks about making the Clinton emails more searchable.

AUGUST 2016: Having verified the previously reported data leak, Facebook warns Cambridge Analytica not to use the data.

NOV. 10, 2016: Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismisses as “crazy” the idea that Facebook could have influenced the election outcome. But two days later, a Russian politician close to Putin claims that he colluded with Cambridge Analytica and the Trump campaign to do exactly that — tip the election in Trump’s favor.

MARCH 16, 2018: Facebook admits to the 2014-2015 data leak of private user profiles and suspends Cambridge Analytica from its platform.

Then came the bombshell.

MARCH 19-20, 2018: Channel 4, a British public-service broadcaster, airs an undercover investigation that videotapes Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix explaining the firm’s methods for manipulating elections in foreign countries, including the use of bribes and sex workers (“beautiful Ukrainian girls”) to entrap politicians.

In the video, Nix says that he has met Donald Trump “many times.” Discussing Cambridge Analytica’s role in Trump’s 2016 election victory, Nix adds, “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting. We ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign, and our data informed all the strategy.”

If American democracy is worth a 20-minute investment of your time, watch the March 20, 2018 video.

Here is a complete list of entries in this week’s Trump-Russia Timeline update:

LATE 2013: Bannon and the Beginning of Cambridge Analytica

JUNE 2014: Mercers Invest in Cambridge Analytica

JUNE 2014: Massive Facebook Data Leak Underway; Cambridge Analytica in Contact With Russians

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

SPRING 2016: Stone Reportedly Knows That WikiLeaks Has Clinton Emails

JULY 24, 2016: Pompeo Tweets and Deletes

AUGUST 2016: Facebook Lawyers Warn Cambridge Analytica

WEEK OF OCT. 17, 2016: Stone Sends Weekly Memos to Trump

JAN. 6, 2017: Trump Receives Intelligence Briefing; Meets Comey for the First Time (revision of previous entry)

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

NOV. 14, 2017: Sessions Says That He Has Not Lied About Trump Campaign Contacts With Russia (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 5, 2018: Prostitute Claims to Have Audio Recordings (revision of previous entry)

MARCH 12, 2018: Sater Is Still an FBI Source

MARCH 12, 2018: GOP Leader Announces End of House Intelligence Committee Investigation

MARCH 12, 2018: Trump Embraces GOP House Intel Committee Report

MARCH 12-13, 2018: Theresa May Blasts Putin; Tillerson Agrees; Trump Fires Tillerson

MARCH 13, 2018: Democrats Rebut GOP House Intelligence Committee Report; Republicans Backtrack

MARCH 14, 2018: Theresa May Expels 23 Russians; Putin Counters

MARCH 15, 2018: Mueller Has Subpoenaed Trump Organization

MARCH 15, 2018: Russia Has Hacked Into Critical US Infrastructure

MARCH 15, 2018: Trump Imposes New Russian Sanctions

MARCH 15, 2018: GOP Senators Ask for Another Special Counsel

MARCH 16, 2018: Sater Hits Interview Circuit

MARCH 16, 2018: Facebook Suspends Cambridge Analytica Over Data Leak

MARCH 16, 2018: Sessions Fires McCabe; Trump Tweets

MARCH 16, 2018: McCabe Has Memos; Responds to Firing

MARCH 17, 2018: Dowd Says Rosenstein Should End Mueller Probe

MARCH 17, 2018: Trump Tweets About Russia Investigation, McCabe, Comey, and Mueller

MARCH 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About Russia, McCabe, Comey, and Mueller Continue

MARCH 19, 2018: GOP Mostly Silent on Trump Attacks on Mueller; Graham: “The Beginning of the End”

MARCH 19-20: Cambridge Analytica Exposé Airs on British TV