MAY 29, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


BIDEN MAY BE THE FRONT RUNNER, BUT BERNIE IS THE MAN, OR SO CNN SAYS. I PERSONALLY DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING POLLS INDICATE, BUT I DO KEEP AN EYE ON THEM. BERNIE SANDERS’ GREATEST ADVANTAGE IS THAT HE IS THE ONLY DEMOCRAT WHO STILL SOUNDS LIKE ONE – LIKE A “REAL” ONE, ANYWAY. I LOOK FORWARD TO NOVEMBER 6, 2018 WHEN HE RUNS FOR A THIRD SENATE TERM; IF HE WERE TO LOSE THAT IT WOULD BE A SETBACK. HE PROBABLY WON’T BECAUSE WHAT I HAVE SEEN IN A RECENT ARTICLE OF THE PEOPLE IN VERMONT, THEY LOVE HIM STILL. THEN, LET’S MOVE ON FORWARD TO 2020.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-analysis/index.html
Bernie Sanders is the most important 2020 candidate
By Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 7:40 PM ET, Tue May 29, 2018

Washington (CNN)On Tuesday morning, Jeff Weaver, who managed Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, said this to C-SPAN's John McArdle about the possibility of a rerun by the Vermont socialist in 2020:

"He is considering another run for the presidency and when the time comes I think we'll have an answer for that. But right now he's still considering it."

That's both a) not terribly surprising and b) extremely important.

Not surprising in that Sanders has never really stopped running a national campaign since his primary loss to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Extremely important in that Sanders is -- and is likely to remain -- the prime mover in the Democratic presidential field.

That's not to say Sanders is the current frontrunner for the nomination. He's not. Former Vice President Joe Biden is -- as CNN's Harry Enten argues convincingly here.

What Sanders' status as the prime mover in the race means is that he will set the terms on which the race is likely to be fought. He will set the margins -- in terms of policy -- for what Democrats are willing to say and do. He will be the person who the race revolves around -- either in agreement with or reaction to.

CNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy.

It's already been happening. Earlier this month in a speech at the Brookings Institute, Biden used Sanders as a foil -- promising an alternate vision for both the problem and the solution to what ails the country. Here's the key bit from Biden: "I love Bernie, but I'm not Bernie Sanders. I don't think 500 billionaires are the reason we're in trouble. The folks at the top aren't bad guys. But this gap is yawning, and it's having the effect of pulling us apart. You see the politics of it."

And, following the 2016 election, a parade of would-be 2020 aspirants -- Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand -- signed onto Sanders' "Medicare For All" single-payer health care proposal. It's a role he played in 2016, albeit a somewhat unlikely one. Clinton, once she realized that Sanders posed a real threat to her chances, moved hard left on virtually every issue -- ensuring there was no space between her and the Vermont senator.

The Point: Watch where Sanders chooses to make moves -- on both policy and politics -- in the coming months. And, as importantly, who follows and who chooses not to.

Read Tuesday's full edition of The Point newsletter here; and sign up to get future editions to your inbox.


IF I WANTED TO LEARN A NEW WAY OF WORKING ON THE COMPUTER AND ANOTHER SET OF PASSWORDS (NOT TO MENTION PUTTING MY PERSONAL INFORMATION ON YET ANOTHER WEBSITE) I WOULD JOIN TWITTER, AND TWEET THIS IN ANSWER TO TRUMP’S BROADSIDE SWIPES AT ALL THINGS LIBERAL, GENEROUS AND TRUTHFUL. “LYIN’ AND CHEATIN’ REPUBLICANS.” I HASTEN TO ADD THAT THERE ARE GOOD, HONEST REPUBLICANS TOO.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/29/missouri-gov-eric-greitens-expected-resign/653430002/
Reports: Embattled Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens expected to resign
Will Schmitt, WSCHMITT@NEWS-LEADER.COM Published 5:14 p.m. ET May 29, 2018 | Updated 5:17 p.m. ET May 29, 2018

KANSAS CITY — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is expected to resign Tuesday afternoon, leaving behind him a brief and tumultuous legacy and moving on from his first public office with the continued prospect of criminal prosecution related to his 2016 campaign.

Citing unnamed sources, Politico and Fox News say Greitens will step down. A press conference is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. local time.

The News-Leader has not yet confirmed the governor's intentions.

The state constitution lays out an order of succession in which Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, who was elected separately, will take over for his fellow Republican.

State lawmakers had convened in a special session to hear evidence about Greitens in a process that could have led to his impeachment.

A Cole County judge ruled against Greitens on Tuesday by allowing subpoenas issued by lawmakers investigating the governor to go forward. The legislative investigation had requested numerous documents from Greitens political campaign and from A New Missouri, Inc., the secretive nonprofit formed by his campaign aides to advocate for his agenda.

Greitens was charged with a invasion of privacy felony in February, but that charge temporarily has been dropped. A second felony charge of computer tampering is still pending.

Greitens ran as a political outsider with promises to clean up corruption, prevent tax hikes and enact a ban on mandatory union dues.

After the second felony charge was announced in April, leading GOP officials including Attorney General Josh Hawley, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard and House Speaker Todd Richardson called for Greitens to step down.

Greitens had refused to leave even facing the prospect of becoming the first governor in Missouri’s history to be impeached.

A New Missouri, Inc., the secretive nonprofit formed by his campaign aides to advocate for his agenda.


CNN AND WASHINGTON PRESS ON OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE PROBE IN HIS PRESSURIZING SESSIONS – TWO ARTICLES

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/trump-sessions-russia-recusal/index.html
NYT: Mueller probing Trump's request that Sessions rescind his recusal from Russia investigation
Aileen Graef
By Aileen Graef, CNN
Updated 9:49 PM ET, Tue May 29, 2018

CNN NEWS VIDEO –BREAKING NEWS – NY TIMES – PRES. TRUMP ASKING SESSIONS TO RESCIND HIS RECUSAL IS NOW BEING PROBED BY MUELLER

(CNN)President Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia investigation and special counsel Robert Mueller is now probing that exchange, according to a report from the New York Times.

The newspaper reported Tuesday that when Sessions flew down to Florida to have dinner with the President at his Mar-a-Lago resort in March 2017, Trump berated Sessions about his decision and asked him to rescind it, a request Sessions declined.

This exchange, as well as the repeated attacks on Sessions by Trump in the media and on Twitter, are part of Mueller's investigation, the paper reported.

Mueller has been reported to be focused on obstruction of justice in his inquiry. In addition to the conversation with Sessions, he has also looked into the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from any investigation related to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

CNN reported in January that former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former press secretary Sean Spicer joined the effort of White House counsel Don McGahn to persuade Sessions to not recuse himself from the investigation.

The two were involved in calls between the White House and Justice Department in early 2018.

"I think it's fair to call it pressure," a senior administration official said about White House conversations with Sessions and his top aides about the matter.

CNN's Jim Acosta, Stephen Collinson and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.


THE PATH HAS FINALLY BEEN DECIDED AND TAKEN, OR NOT. I CAN ONLY FIND THIS SPECIFIC STORY IN WASHINGTON PRESS .... I DID FIND A CNN STORY ALONG THE SAME LINES WHICH IS ABOVE. IT DOESN’T USE THAT PARTICULAR WORDING, THOUGH. PROBABLE TRUTH IS THAT MUELLER IS LOOKING INTO THE MATTER, BUT MAY NOT HAVE MADE AN “OFFICIAL” PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT.

https://washingtonpress.com/author/benlocke/
POLITICS
Special Counsel Mueller just launched an official obstruction of justice investigation into Trump
The NY Times dropped a bombshell that should get America’s attention off of Roseanne.
By Benjamin Locke
May 29, 2018 9:47 PM

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether President Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice goes beyond his firing of FBI Director and now includes the pressure Trump has put on Attorney General Jeff Sessions since he recused himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, reports The New York Times.

The special counsel’s interest,” announced the Times, “demonstrates Mr. Sessions’s overlooked role as a key witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself.”

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In interviews with current and former White House officials, Mueller’s investigators have pushed hard for information on Trump’s treatment of Sessions and, says the newspaper, “whether they believe the president was trying to impede the Russia investigation by pressuring him.”

Mueller’s team also interviewed Sessions at length this past January.

High on the list of the four dozen or so questions, Mueller wants to ask Trump is how the president tried to get Sessions to reverse his recusal from the Russia investigation.


Tea Pain
@TeaPainUSA
Trump's "Sophie's Choice." He can't fire Sessions cause he's a primary witness, but he needs to fire Sessions to shut down the Mueller probe.https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1001610947109228545 …

8:01 PM - May 29, 2018
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Sessions is a Trump loyalist but he has resisted frequent efforts to get him to reverse his recusal because it was done on the advice of Justice Department lawyers after his false statements during his confirmation hearing before the Senate were discovered about his contacts with various Russians before and after the election.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who since April has taken on a lead role in defending the president, insists Trump must not be forced to discuss his private conversations with Sessions, because talking about his private deliberations with senior White House officials would set a terrible precedent for future presidents.

Trump has obsessed on Session’s recusal and believes if he had not done it, the Special Counsel would never have been appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

It has even impacted their once close friendship.

“Before the recusal,” writes the NY Times, “the president and his attorney general were friends, often sharing meals and talking on the phone. Today, they rarely speak outside of cabinet meetings.”

Trump at various times has tried to get rid of Sessions by making him resign, even as he gleefully embraces and enforces Trump’s white supremacist agenda.

The Justice Department has guidelines on recusal that say if the circumstances which warranted it in the first place remain, there is no way to reverse it – which is the case with Sessions.

The guidelines are there to stop political meddling of exactly the sort Trump wants.

“It’s yet more behavior that tramples on the line between law and politics,” Samuel W. Buell, a professor of law at Duke University and former federal prosecutor, told the NY Times.

Trump has repeatedly told intimates that he would never have appointed Sessions as Attorney General if he knew he would recuse himself and he continues to be frustrated by that decision and the resulting appointment of Mueller.

Renato Mariotti
✔
@renato_mariotti
As I told @KateBolduan on @OutFrontCNN, Trump's request to Sessions to take back control of the Russia investigation after his recusal in order to show "loyalty," combined with other evidence, suggests that Mueller will conclude Trump obstructed justice.

8:30 PM - May 29, 2018
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This has eaten at Trump since the beginning of his administration and just gets him even hotter under the collar as the Special Counsel gets closer and closer to finding out the truth about Trump, his campaign, and the Russians.

Sessions is loyal to Trump but if put under oath the attorney and Attorney General may have to tell the truth that Trump does not want to get out.

That is what Trump fears and what Americans who want the truth pray will happen when this is all over.

Add your name to millions demanding Congress take action on the President’s crimes. IMPEACH TRUMP & PENCE!

BENJAMIN LOCKE
BENJAMIN LOCKE IS A RETIRED COLLEGE PROFESSOR WITH AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE IN INDUSTRIAL LABOR AND RELATIONS FROM CORNELL UNIVERSITY AND AN MBA FROM THE EUROPEAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT.


WHO IS GLOBAL NEWS?

https://globalnews.ca
Global News - breaking news & current latest Canadian news headlines; national weather forecasts & predictions, local news videos, money and financial news…
Calgary
Global News Calgary ; Global TV …

GLOBAL NEWS, CANADIAN, FACT-CHECKED AND BIAS RATED:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/global-news/

*Voting Polls do not affect MBFC bias ratings

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Global News - Left Center BiasLEFT-CENTER BIAS

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.

Factual Reporting: HIGH

Notes: Global News is the news and current affairs division of Global Television Network in Canada, overseeing all local and national news programming on the network’s twelve owned-and-operated stations. Global News provides evidence based sourced news. They do have a left-center leaning when it comes to story selection that slightly favors liberals and occasional emotional words that convey mild bias. (D. Van Zandt 2/21/2017)

Review #2: Global News (GN) is a Canadian based news site owned by Shaw Communications (SC) (J. R. Shaw, and family). While SC is primarily a conservative organization, GN appears to be very fair, balanced, well sourced, and factual in their reporting. The articles I reviewed were either direct reprints or heavily sourced from Least Biased sources such as Reuters and Associated Press. Those articles that are not direct carry overs do contain a slight Left Bias, although the reporting is, again, well sourced and factual. Note: This review is only based on GN’s political reporting, and while this reviewer is no expert on Canadian politics, the articles I read on those subjects appeared to have a slight Left Bias as well. Despite its’ parent companies conservative stance, GN itself nearly scored a Least Biased rating, earning a Left-Center Bias rating overall. (D. Kelley 12/1/2017)



THANK YOU, JUDGE JACKSON, FOR ADDING AN HONEST OPINION IN THIS ARGUMENT.

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-05-29/the-latest-court-filing-may-show-russia-probe-nearing-close
The Latest: Judge Sides With Mueller Team in Manafort Case
A judge says special counsel Robert Mueller is correct to withhold certain information being demanded by lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
2018-05-29

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Donald Trump applauds during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 28, 2018, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — THE Latest on President Donald Trump and the special counsel's Russia investigation (all times local):

5:45 p.m.

A judge says special counsel Robert Mueller is correct to withhold certain information being demanded by lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Mueller's lawyers had redacted information from two affidavits used to get search warrants in the Manafort investigation.

They said the information was withheld because it fell into two categories: names of confidential sources and details about ongoing investigations unrelated to the cases pending against Manafort, who is awaiting trial in Virginia and Washington.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in an order Tuesday that she had privately reviewed the two affidavits in question and agreed with Mueller's team that they didn't have to reveal the un-redacted information to Manafort's lawyers.

____

3:10 p.m.

The case of a California man who pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is moving closer to sentencing.

It's a sign that that aspect of the Mueller investigation may be drawing to a close. Prosecutors filed a similar motion last week in the case of George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign aide who pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers say they're ready to start the process of sentencing Richard Pinedo, who pleaded guilty in February to selling bank accounts to Russians.

The filing asks a judge to refer the case for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, a critical step in the sentencing process.

__

7:28 a.m.

President Donald Trump is accusing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team of "MEDDLING" in the upcoming midterm elections and blames Democrats for "Collusion."

Mueller is leading the probe into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the help from Trump campaign aides. So far, four Trump associates have been charged in Mueller's investigation; three have pleaded guilty to lying to the authorities.

Trump has repeatedly referred to Mueller's team as "13 angry Democrats," although Mueller is a Republican.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: "The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls. There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats."

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IS AT HIS ELOQUENT BEST HERE. “WITCH HUNT! WITCH HUNT, WITCH HUNT! WITCH HUNT WITCH HUNT WITCH HUNT WITCH HUNT!!! WITCH HUNT. NO COLLUSION. WITCH HUNT.”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-demonize/index.html
Trump is winning his effort to demonize Mueller
Zach Wolf
Analysis by Z. Byron Wolf, CNN
Updated 5:05 PM ET, Tue May 29, 2018

Washington (CNN)Witch hunt! Witch hunt, witch hunt! Witch hunt witch hunt witch hunt WITCH HUNT!!! Witch hunt. No collusion. Witch hunt.

It's Donald Trump's mantra about the Russia investigation, and it's working, for now.

He's mentioned the special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller into Russian election meddling and possible collusion by the Trump campaign more and more frequently -- Chris Cillizza has documented the President's obsession with the issue.

I'm not one who can often identify defined or coherent strategy in the President's shoot-from-the-hip gut reaction policy and political choices. But in terms of the Russia investigation, he's embarked pretty clearly on an effort to make everything Mueller does out to be about politics rather than justice, and in doing so, he's winning the argument.

Track the publicly known developments of the sprawling investigations into Trump and Russia.

In large part, he's winning it because he's the only one arguing right now. Robert Mueller, presumably hard at work on his investigation, is not out in public defending himself or his staffers -- Trump likes to point out that a number of them have contributed to Democrats in the past.

Particularly among Republicans, approval of the Mueller investigation has followed. It is when Mueller is viewed as a partisan -- and that's what Trump has tried to hammer into people's minds for months -- that the President can try try to inoculate himself whatever action Mueller might someday take.

It's not just Mueller. During his year and a half as President, Trump has waged a campaign to erode public trust in some of the country's most important institutions -- the Department of Justice and the FBI -- as a self-defense mechanism.

Tuesday, he went a step further, suggesting without proof that the "rigged Russia witch hunt" will be "meddling" in the midterms.

Calling elections in which he's not expected to do well "rigged" is nothing new for Trump; in 2016, when polls suggested he would lose, he pre-emptively questioned the results and said, without proof, it was "rigged" against him.

After he won the election, but lost the popular vote, he called the results into question again by saying, repeatedly and without evidence, that there were millions of illegal votes.

The thing is, if the Mueller investigation is viewed as a partisan witch hunt -- and there's no evidence that's what it is -- then Trump has won the the political argument.

Play Video
Giuliani: 'Public opinion' will decide impeachment 02:57

He's done a lot to keep the investigation in the news by tweeting about it so much. And each time he's mentioned it, he's called it a witch hunt or impugned the staffers as part of the deep state cabal he imagines is out to get him.

Republicans, Trump's base, have responded. As CNN's director of polling Jennifer Agiesta wrote this month, Republicans are souring on the investigation.

Here's how she wrote about the shift in approval for the Mueller investigation after that CNN poll:

Overall, 44% approve of the way Mueller is handling the investigation and 38% disapprove. That's a slight negative shift overall since March, when 48% approved of Mueller's work. Just about all of that change has come from Republicans, who now give Mueller a 17% approval rating, down from 29% in March. Among Democrats and independents, approval ratings for Mueller have not changed significantly.

Trump arguably doesn't even need to affect the opinions of Democrats and independents. As long as he can convince Republicans the Mueller probe is tainted, it becomes political.

Now, all of that could change depending on what, if anything, Mueller ultimately uncovers or alleges. But no matter what it is, because of Trump's "witch hunt" bombardment, he'll be doing it from a place of less public trust. There are two tracks to this -- the public one that Trump is pursuing, and the criminal one that Mueller is pursuing against former Trump campaign aides. They're related but distinct.

We know the type of demonizing strategy Trump is pursuing in public can be effective because it's worked when Bill Clinton was being investigated by Ken Starr and Hillary Clinton was complaining about a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

One year of Mueller's special counsel investigation, by the numbers

Clinton's strategist at the time, Dick Morris, told Politico last year about the importance of turning a prosecutor into a political enemy.

"I think the idea of having an enemy when you're the object of a special prosecutor is a very important one," he said. "Clinton only survived a special prosecutor because he made Ken Starr the enemy."

And that's also probably why Democratic leaders offer such tortured responses to the idea of impeaching Trump and why they'd rather talk about policy ideas than the Mueller probe. They saw Republicans lose a very political, public trial against Clinton in the '90s. Trump's been mounting his defense in the same way, in advance of whatever Mueller may ultimately come up with.


WHEN DID THESE MUELLER TEAM "SAUSAS" GAIN THAT SPECIAL STATUS? WHAT THE ANSWER IS CAN WEAKEN MUELLER’S LEGAL STAFF OR NOT. MAY 29.

https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2018/05/21/mueller-virginia-case-special-assistant-us-attorneys-600777
Mueller team's special status could save Virginia Manafort case
By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/21/2018 06:10 AM EDT

PHOTOGRAPH -- In the Virginia case, Paul Manafort is facing charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and failing to report foreign bank accounts. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

An obscure special status obtained by several of special counsel Robert Mueller's attorneys could prevent a judge from ousting Mueller's lawyers from their role in the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in federal court in Virginia.

Several court filings indicate that when lawyers from Mueller's office appeared in federal court in Alexandria earlier this year, they did so not only as representatives of Mueller's office but as special assistant United States attorneys (SAUSAs) attached to the United States attorney's office there.

That designation gives the Mueller prosecutors a kind of dual status that could complicate any attempt by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to try to shift the case to federal prosecutors based in Alexandria — a possibility the judge mentioned on a couple of occasions during a contentious hearing earlier this month.

A spokesman for Mueller's office, Peter Carr, confirmed to POLITICO that some of the attorneys on the special counsel's team have the SAUSA status. Carr pointed to a local federal court rule that allows federal prosecutors to handle cases there when "appearing pursuant to the authority of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia."

One lawyer who has studied the use of SAUSAs said the granting of that status to lawyers on Mueller's team theoretically gives them the authority to pursue matters that aren't within the special counsel's mandate.

"As special assistant U.S. attorneys, they are not confined to the scope the special counsel is acting under," said Haley White, a North Carolina attorney who wrote a 2015 law review article on the SAUSA phenomenon. "They can potentially have the ability to go outside that scope. ... They have all the powers and abilities that just a regular U.S. attorney would have."

At least four of Mueller's prosecutors have submitted court pleadings indicating they have SAUSA status: Andrew Weissmann, Greg Andres, Kyle Freeny and Scott Meisler.

It's unclear at precisely what point Mueller's lawyers acquired their SAUSA status. If it was before the first indictment against Manafort in Virginia was obtained on Feb. 13, 2018, Manafort's defense could lose much of its argument that the indictment is tainted because it was sought by prosecutors who lacked proper authorization. However, if prosecutors didn't have that status when obtaining search warrants in Virginia and Washington last year, there could still be legal questions about evidence obtained through those searches.

Mueller's response to Manafort's motion to dismiss the Virginia case does mention some court decisions related to SAUSAs, but doesn't explicitly argue that the SAUSA status negates much of Manafort's argument about Mueller's team being unauthorized or exceeding its mandate.

With Mueller pursuing separate criminal cases against Manafort in Washington and Alexandria, it could be that Mueller's team wanted to keep their arguments in the two cases parallel as Manafort attacked the special counsel's authority in both courts. The SAUSA argument would not have been open to Mueller's team in Washington, because they don't have that status in D.C., where Justice Department attorneys routinely appear in federal court without any special appointment. (In any event, Mueller's team didn't need the argument in Washington, since the judge there rejected Manafort's challenge last week.)

Robert Mueller is pictured. | Getty Images
LAW AND ORDER

3 Predictions for What Mueller Will Do Next
By NELSON W. CUNNINGHAM

In the Virginia case, Manafort is facing charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and failing to report foreign bank accounts. The Washington indictment charges Manafort with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent for his work related to Ukraine.

The use of SAUSAs has provoked some controversy, particularly when U.S. attorneys rely on the mechanism to appoint state or local prosecutors to pursue cases in federal court that ran aground in state courts. U.S. attorneys' offices have also used the SAUSA status to augment their prosecution staff with unpaid volunteers who are often buffing their résumés with federal court prosecution experience.

However, some scholars have warned of dangers in the SAUSA phenomenon, with U.S. attorneys' offices blurring lines of responsibility with other entities and sometimes giving local prosecutors an option to avoid the urban jury pools of their local courts. U.S. attorneys seem to make uneven use of the SAUSA arrangement, with some offices rarely, if ever, relying on it and one office reporting more than 50 SAUSAs on its rolls.

Josh Gerstein is a senior White House reporter for POLITICO.


MUSIC -- http://www.diogenesmiddlefinger.com/2018/05/middle-finger-symphony-theater_26.html
HONEST MAN -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes


THIS IS NOT NEWS, NO, BUT IT IS INTERESTING NATIONAL CULTURAL INFORMATION.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/memorial-day-surprisingly-partisan-history/
CBS NEWS May 28, 2018, 1:01 PM
The surprisingly partisan history of Memorial Day

This week marks the 150th anniversary of Memorial Day, but even those who stopped to remember the fallen may be surprised by the fascinating history of the occasion.

"It was partisan. It was divisive. It was a long time before the country celebrated as one and that really took until 100 years ago – and World War I," historian and bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis said on "CBS This Morning" Monday.

Arlington women's memorial highlights the struggles and sacrifices of female veterans
Memorial Day, which was first called Decoration Day for the flowers placed on the graves of fallen soldiers, began in 1868. But even that date is disputed.

"Some towns say they were doing it earlier than 1868. But this year, 1868, was important because a former Union general, a very prominent man named John Logan, said we should do this on May 30, 1868," Davis explained.

An important point to remember, according to Davis, is that Logan was strictly referring to Union soldiers when he made the proclamation.

"He was talking about Union soldiers, those fighting the rebellion of tyranny as he called it and also to free those in chains. So it's clearly related to the emancipation of slaves and Civil War, but that's why the Confederate states set up their own decoration days," he said.

But the "deep enmity" between the North and the South was part of the holiday even before then as Arlington National Cemetery was taken out of property owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

A Memorial Day worth remembering
"It did take World War I when Americans came together and fought together 100 years ago in 1918 to make the holiday more of an inclusive national holiday and, of course, that was when it was decided to build the Tomb of the Unknown," Davis said.

Partisanship continued to be a part of Memorial Day even when it became an official federal holiday in 1971 -- a time when the country was deeply divided over the Vietnam War.

"Memorial Day lost some of its appeal perhaps as the country couldn't separate out their feelings about an unpopular war and the feelings of the military," Davis said. "We've done a better job of that I think nowadays. Even though we don't always agree with the war, we know that the men and women who are fighting are doing that. They chose to do that. They're fighting for the country. And they are not the ones who chose the war."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



MADDOW NEWS
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/28/18
GOP departures a potentially ominous portent for Trump in 2018
Rachel Maddow talks with Steve Kornacki about history's lessons for what to expect from midterm elections and whether 2018 is likely to follow a familiar pattern that Donald Trump won't like. Duration: 15:35


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/28/18
Elections since Trump suggest Democratic base energized for 2018
Rachel Maddow talks with Steve Kornacki about Democratic special election victories since the 2016 election, as well as significant shifts toward Democrats where Republicans managed to hold onto office, suggesting Democrats are energized for the midterm elections. Duration: 8:09