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

Kids in Cages

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

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

Deterring Asylum-Seekers

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

More Trump lies

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

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

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

Unpleasant Surprise for DHS

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

This is happening in America.

Right now.

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

Pause on that number: 148 days.

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

Kids still separated from their families:

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

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

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

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

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

The Tip of a Bigger Iceberg

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

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

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

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

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

In The Dead of Night?

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

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

The Times poses more questions with tragic answers:

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

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

…

“How do the two types of facilities compare?

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

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

…

“Why is the population of detained migrant children skyrocketing?

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

…

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

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

Savvy businessman, that Trump.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEPT. 25, 2018: Trump Cites Lindsey Graham

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

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

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

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

141 DAYS AND COUNTING…

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

Kids still separated from their families:

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

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

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

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

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

Closing the Borders

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

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

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

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

There’s More

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

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

Who gets hurt? Kids and their families:

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

To Stop Stephen Miller, Dethrone Trump

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

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

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

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

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

The Flynn/McFarland Timeline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feb. 13, 2017: Flynn resigns.

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

Now Focus On McFarland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUMMER 2017: FBI Agents Question K.T. McFarland

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

FEB. 2, 2018: McFarland Withdraws Nomination

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

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

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

SEPT. 17, 2018: Flynn Ready for Sentencing Hearing

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

SEPT. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About FISA Warrants

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rudy Strikes Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JULY 9, 2015: Butina Tries to Meet Trump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kids still separated from their families:

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

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

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

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

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

Trump’s Counterproductive Immigration Policy

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Trump’s America.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEPT. 7, 2018: Papadopoulos Sentenced; Trump Reacts

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

SEPT. 7, 2018: Russia Wants Butina Released

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

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

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

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

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

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

As of Aug. 16: 366

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

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

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

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

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

You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse?

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

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

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

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

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

A Sad Refrain for America

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

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

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

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

Why Ohr? The Bottom Line 

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

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

Roll the tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flash forward to August 2018:

— Deripaska is personally subject to US sanctions against Russia.

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

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

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

One More Thing…

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

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

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

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

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

2007: Steele Meets Ohr

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

SUMMER 2015: Papadopoulos Seeks Position in Trump Campaign

SEPTEMBER 2015: Ohr Meets With Deripaska

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

FEBRUARY 2016: Steele Emails Ohr About Deripaska

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

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

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

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

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

SEPTEMBER 2016: FBI Agents Ask Deripaska About Manafort

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

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

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

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

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

AUG. 28, 2018: Trump Attacks Brennan and Comey

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

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

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

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

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

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks Ohr

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

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

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

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

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Attacks Comey, Ohr

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

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

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

The latest development in Trump’s immigration policy involves Hispanic citizens whose birth records show they were born in the US decades ago. The Washington Post reports: “[U]nder President Trump, the passport denials and revocations [for individuals delivered by certain midwives and physicians along the US-Mexico border] appear to be surging, becoming part of a broader interrogation into the citizenship of people who have lived, voted and worked in the United States for their entire lives.”

At first, the State Department refused to comment, The Post continues.

“‘The State Department’s domestic passport denials are at the lowest rate in six years for midwife cases,’ said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement after the story was published.

“But those numbers appear to leave out key data. The State Department declined repeated requests from The Post for additional information.”

Where Are The Kids?

Meanwhile, on Kids Held Hostage Day 120, the US government is making dismal progress in dealing with a Trump-created tragedy that continues to inflict pain on innocent children.

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

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

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

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

As of Aug. 16: 366

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

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

Behind every child separation number is a face and what was once a family. And to the world, the face responsible for this ongoing humanitarian crisis belongs to every citizen of the the United States of America. The ugly image of this self-inflicted wound will shadow all of us for a long time. Other countries don’t allow a miscreant nation and its people to forget this sort of travesty.

And they shouldn’t.

Where are the kids? 

It’s Kids Held Hostage Day 113. The federal government is moving at a snail’s pace to remedy the humanitarian crisis that Trump created. Here are the details:

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

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

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

As of Aug. 16: 366

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

Meanwhile, many of the parental “waivers” on which the government relied to improve its earlier metrics are dropping away. The number of parents now “indicating a desire against reunification” — that’s Trumpspeak for “waiving their parental rights” — decreased from 154 to 139. Expect that number to continue falling as the affected parents learn how the government misled them into signing away their kids and/or their international right to seek asylum.

At the current rate, it will take months to reunite the remaining 500+ kids with their families — assuming the government can find them. That’s a big assumption. So far, for 79 of the children, there is either no phone number for a parent or the government provided an inoperable one. Under the banner of the United States of America, Trump has orphaned kids forever.

Who Cares? No One in Trump’s Government

In a recent article for The New Yorker, Jonathan Blitzer writes, “‘I definitely haven’t seen contrition,’ an Administration official, who told me about the weekly meetings [among 20 Trump Trump administration officials dealing with the aftermath of the zero-tolerance policy], said. ‘But there was frustration with the incompetence of how zero tolerance got implemented. From the perspective of the political leaders here, there’s recognition of how badly the policy failed.’ The lesson, according to the official, didn’t seem to be that the Administration had gone too far in separating families but, rather, that ‘we need to be smarter if we want to implement something on this scale’ again.”

Blitzer continues, “The government’s own data show that it has had no appreciable effect on migration patterns throughout the summer, but the Administration pursued the policy anyway, targeting immigrant families.”

A Character Test for Every American

“I asked the current Administration official whether the outcry over family separation had caught the government by surprise,” Blitzer concludes. “It had, the official said. ‘The expectation was that the kids would go to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, that the parents would get deported, and that no one would care.’ Yet, when it became clear that the public did, the Administration chose not to change course.”

There’s the money quote: Trump’s expectation was that “no one would care.” That’s because he didn’t. In November, it will be up to American voters to prove Trump wrong by forcing his GOP enablers in Congress into another line of work.

On Dec. 18, 2016, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

“We need to get to the bottom of this,” he said, bucking GOP leadership by joining a bipartisan request for a select committee. “We need to find out exactly what was done and what the implications of the attacks were, especially if they had an effect on our election. There’s no doubt they were interfering and no doubt that it was cyberattacks. The question now is how much and what damage and what should the United States of America do? And so far, we have been totally paralyzed.”

Two weeks later, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined McCain on national television with a promise. Graham said, “We should get to the bottom of all things Russian when it came to the 2016 election. Period… Wherever it leads.”

McCain never faltered; Graham became weak-kneed. Rebuffed in his request for a select committee, McCain wanted special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to proceed unimpeded to its conclusion. It remains to be seen whether Trump will let that happen, and whether Trump’s congressional defenders — the same ones who blocked McCain’s pursuit of a select committee — will do anything to stop him if he doesn’t.

In the spirit of honoring McCain’s commitment to protect American democracy, here is a readers’ guide to the latest Trump-Russia Timeline update (two weeks’ worth).

Roy Cohn: Trump Channels a Mentor

On Aug. 20, Trump compared special counsel Robert Mueller to the notorious 1950s “Red Scare” demagogue, Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI). One of Trump’s early mentors was Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s hatchet man. Cohn appears in the first entry of the Trump-Russia Timeline — 1979.

Psychologists have a name for Trump’s McCarthy tweet: projection. For more than a year, he has attacked systematically in Cohn-like fashion every witness likely to testify against him in Mueller’s investigation. Look at the casualty list of individuals who can corroborate James Comey‘s testimony that Trump asked him to go easy on former national security adviser Mike Flynn (“letting Flynn go”):

FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe (fired)

FBI chief of staff Jim Rybicki (reassigned, quit under fire)

FBI general counsel James Baker (reassigned, quit under fire)

FBI deputy director chief counsel Lisa Page (reassigned, quit under fire)

FBI executive director national security Carl Ghattas (leaving FBI)

Last man standing: Associate FBI director David Bowdich

Trump’s “Distract and Divert” Strategy Claims More Victims

Trump has tried to spin his involvement in the Mueller investigation as limited to Comey’s firing and potential obstruction of justice. In fact, Trump knows that his exposure goes far beyond that. His broader diversionary attacks on Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation prove it.

In that mission, Trump continues to enjoy the unwavering assistance of complicit Republicans in Congress, especially Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Mark Meadows (R-NC). But there are so many more. In fact, at some point — whether by sins of omission or commission — most GOP members of Congress have aided and abetted Trump. Their attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI have been relentless and the collateral damage is mounting:

Career FBI agent Peter Strok (fired after internal director of personnel matters recommended demotion and 60-day suspension)

Career federal attorney and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr (demoted and whom Trump now threatens with the loss of his national security clearance)

And, of course, the supposedly “Angry Democrats” on Mueller’s team have become a central theme of Trump’s tweets and public comments. Soon, Trump will probably start naming them. The toughest fact against him is also the most enduring: Mueller is a lifelong Republican, as is his immediate supervisor, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

How low will the complicit GOP go with Trump? Regrettably far. Immediately, after Trump’s latest attack on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) gave him the green light to fire Sessions. That would allow Trump to replace him with someone who could and would end Mueller’s investigation.

Jury Tampering in Plain Sight

Meanwhile, Trump opened another front in his scorched earth battle against the rule of law. As the jury in Paul Manafort‘s first criminal case deliberated, Trump praised Manafort as a “good man” and attacked special counsel Mueller.

“Very sad what they’ve done to Paul Manafort,” Trump said about his former campaign manager.

The Manafort jury was not sequestered. Such remarks from the President of the United States were a breathtaking effort to influence the verdict. And to some extent, they may have worked. But for a single holdout, the jurors would have convicted Manafort on all 18 counts facing him, rather than the eight that will still land him in prison for a long, long time.

Now Trump is dangling before Manafort the possibility of a pardon, provided he doesn’t “flip” and become a “rat” — as Trump asserted John Dean did to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Cohen Flips

Within minutes of the Manafort verdict, Michael Cohen appeared in a different federal court to confess that, at Trump’s direction, he violated federal election laws. According to Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, he has more to say that could interest Mueller, and Trump won’t like it.

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

MARCH 14, 2016: Kushner Meets Kissinger

SOMETIME BETWEEN JUN. 3 AND JUN. 8, 2016: Don Jr. Reportedly Tells Trump About Russian Offer to Help; Trump Approves (entry deleted)

FEB. 11, 2017: Mifsud Leaves US

JULY 23, 2018: Trump Considers Revoking Security Clearances of Critics; WH Memo Dated Three Days Later Revokes Brennan’s (revision of previous entry)

JUL. 26, 2018; CNN and NBC Report That Trump Knew in Advance About Trump Tower Meeting, But CNN’s Source Later Clarifies Record (revision of previous entry)

AUG. 10, 2018: FBI Agent Strzok Fired

AUG. 12, 2018: Deripaska Agrees to Reduce Rusal Holdings

AUG. 13, 2018: Trump Tweets That Strzok’s Firing Means Mueller’s Investigation Should ‘Be Dropped’: ‘Witch Hunt,’ ‘Hoax’, ‘No Collusion’

AUG. 13, 2018: Another Judge Rejects Challenges to Mueller’s Authority

AUG. 14, 2018: Trump Tweets Attack Strzok, Sessions, Mueller, FBI, Clinton, Ohr, Steele Dossier, ‘No Collusion or Obstruction’, ‘Illegal Rigged Witch Hunt’

AUG. 15, 2018: Trump Tweets About ‘Rigged Russian With Hunt,’ ‘Hoax,’ ‘No Collusion,’ Strzok Firing and FBI

AUG. 15, 2018: White House Announces That Trump Has Revoked Brennan’s Security Clearance

AUG. 15, 2018: Trump to WSJ: Brennan Led ‘Rigged Witch Hunt’

AUG. 15, 2018: Trump Tweets About Brennan

AUG. 15, 2018: Giuliani Says Trump Attorneys Are Prepared to Fight Mueller Subpoena

AUG. 15, 2018: Trump Signs Defense Bill; Objects to Certain Russia Provisions

AUG. 15, 16 and 17, 2018: Trump’s Twelve Tweets: ‘Rigged With Hunt’, Strzok, Ohr, Brennan, Blumenthal

AUG. 16, 2018: Paul Says He Wants Sanctions Lifted for Russian Legislators

AUG. 17, 2018: Trump Lashes Out at Brennan, Mueller, Ohr, FBI

AUG. 17, 2018: Trump Defends Manafort; Judge Discloses Threats

AUG. 18, 2018: NYT: McGahn Cooperating ‘Extensively in Mueller Inquiry’

AUG. 18-19, 2018: Trump Tweets After Reports of McGahn’s Cooperation; Compares Mueller to Sen. Joseph McCarthy

AUG. 19, 2018: Giuliani Says Trump Tower Meeting Originally About Getting Info on Clinton

AUG. 20, 2018: Trump Tweets Attack Mueller

AUG. 20, 2018: Trump Attacks Ohr; Sessions’ ‘Justice’ Department

AUG. 20, 2018: Trump Says He Could Run Mueller Investigation

AUG. 21, 2018: Manafort Convicted; Cohen Pleads Guilty, Implicates Trump, Has More to Say on Russia

AUG. 21, 2018: Trump Calls Manafort a “Good Man”

AUG. 22, 2018: Trump Tweets About Cohen, Manafort, ‘Justice’ Department

AUG. 22, 2018: Cohen’s Attorney: Cohen Has Info on Trump’s Knowledge of Russian Hacking

AUG. 22, 2018: Trump Would Consider Pardoning Manafort

AUG. 22, 2018: Sanders: ‘President Has Done Nothing Wrong; There Are No Charges Against Him’; No Consideration to Pardoning Manafort

AUG. 23, 2018: Trump Considered Pardon for Manafort, But When?

AUG 23, 2018: Trump Tweets ‘NO COLLUSION – RIGGED WITCH HUNT’

AUG. 23, 2018: Trump Blasts Sessions, Again; Sessions Responds

AUG. 24, 2018: Trump Continues to Needle Sessions

AUG. 25, 2018: Trump Tweets About Cohen, Sessions, Clinton Emails

AUG. 26, 2018: Trump Retweets Attacks on Sessions, Threat to ‘Get Involved’

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