The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump uses investigations as political weapon

 

 

 

Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report, and happy Thursday! This daily email, a successor to The Hill’s Tipsheet, is reported by Jonathan Easley and Alexis Simendinger to get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. (CLICK HERE to subscribe!)

President Trump hits the campaign trail today for the second time this week, with the midterm elections only 158 days away.

Trump will host fundraisers that should pull in big bucks for Republicans and his own 2020 campaign in two of the largest cities in the U.S.

In Houston, the president will headline a luncheon for the GOP’s Senate campaign arm.

The Houston Chronicle: Trump to meet with Santa Fe shooting victims on Texas fundraising swing.

In Dallas, Trump will raise money for his own reelection campaign and for the Republican National Committee.

Just don’t expect a traditional midterm campaign cycle.

A Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general report examining the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign could drop any day, with some expecting it as soon as next week.

And the president has dragged the myriad investigations into himself and his presidential campaign to the forefront, claiming special counsel Robert Mueller and his team will meddle in the midterms and alleging at a campaign rally in Nashville on Tuesday night that Democrats had “infiltrated” his 2016 campaign for the purposes of spying.

“Spygate”

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is breaking with Trump, arguing that the FBI’s use of an informant was appropriate and was not tantamount to espionage.

The Hill: Conservative stalwart boosts FBI in Trump feud.

The New York Times: Former President Obama had no knowledge in 2016 that the FBI was investigating Russia contacts with the Trump campaign, writes a former Obama aide in a new book.

The White House is not backing down from the president’s claim that the FBI planted a spy in his campaign for political purposes.

The Hill: White House: “Still cause for concern” about informant.

There was one good piece of news that got lost in the wash here. Gowdy, who was among those briefed by law enforcement officials on the use of an informant, also said the FBI informant had “nothing to do with Donald Trump.”

The recusal

The president has tweeted about how he needs to let go of the investigation to focus on more important matters.

But he still can’t get over what he views as a betrayal by Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and paving the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.

The president tweeted Wednesday that he wished he’d picked someone else to be attorney general.

The Memo: Trump feud with Sessions grows toxic.

The Hill: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani downplays possibility of Sessions getting fired.

The New York Times: Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote a secret memo saying he feared that Rosenstein gave Trump a cover story for firing former FBI Director James Comey. McCabe has turned the memo over to Mueller.

The adult-film actress

Conservatives were gratified to see Stormy Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti get smacked down by Judge Kimba Wood for being a publicity hound. Avenatti has withdrawn his request to represent Daniels in the FBI investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s business dealings.

But there was bad news here, too, for Team Trump.

CNN: FBI piecing together scraps from Cohen’s shredding machine.

LEADING THE DAY

WHITE HOUSE and ADMINISTRATION: Entertainment personalities and the White House continued to share space Wednesday.

The Hill: After less than a day of restrained silence, Trump weighed in on the controversy surrounding Roseanne Barr, a Trump backer. Her hit television sitcom “Roseanne” was yanked off the air by ABC bosses on Tuesday. The president accused the entertainment network of a double standard in its decision to cancel the program, prompted by Barr’s racist and offensive tweets earlier in the week.

 

 

Prison Reform: Vanity Fair: Kim Kardashian West joined the White House effort to enact prison reform legislation, a policy project shepherded for Trump by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The reality TV diva, who has met the president before, joined a political effort to secure a pardon for Alice Marie Johnson, who is serving a life sentence without parole for a nonviolent drug offense.

Dressed in black and trailed by an assistant, Kardashian West took her message directly to the president on Wednesday.

 

Kardashian West first discussed the idea with Kushner earlier this month, and their collaboration soon made the rounds in news and entertainment media. The woman famous for being famous (and her husband Kanye West) tapped their enormous social media audiences to promote a pardon for Johnson. The effort piggybacks on a viral video by Mic, which described the 62-year-old great-grandmother’s case.

 

 

Sports celebrities at the White House: On the South Lawn, athletes also gathered Wednesday for a White House Sports and Fitness Day event, part of a PR campaign to promote health, fitness and nutrition.

Lending their celebrity sway for the day were football great Herschel Walker; baseball stars Mariano Rivera and Johnny Damon; volleyball Olympian Misty May-Treanor; and golf’s Natalie Gulbis, among many others.

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INTERNATIONAL: Summit suspense remains in the headlines, as preparations for a possible meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continue. Both sides dispatched global representatives to world capitals for high-level conversations.

The Associated Press: Today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with Kim Yong Chol, North Korea’s former military intelligence chief, in New York City. Traveling first through Beijing, Kim arrived in the United States on Wednesday. The discussions are aimed at figuring out if a June 12 summit in Singapore should proceed.

Other U.S. representatives have been in North Korea for logistical discussions tied to a possible summit.

Meanwhile, at the invitation of North Korea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Pyongyang today to discuss the nuclear standoff and bilateral ties with North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho.

The Hill: On Wednesday, Pompeo warned Lavrov by phone that Russia must not interfere with U.S. domestic matters, including elections. It was the secretary’s first such discussion with his Russian counterpart since his confirmation to lead the State Department. Russia tweeted the endeavor to “overcome existing differences”:

 

 

Reuters: The outgoing head of U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, who is Trump’s pick to be the ambassador to South Korea, says North Korea remains the United States’ most imminent threat.

China: Speaking of Pacific threats, China again vows to protect its interests against U.S. trade tariffs. US-China relations have chilled, Reuters reports.

The Wall Street Journal: The administration’s surprise decision to move forward with tariffs and other sanctions against China threatens to derail trade talks scheduled for this weekend, featuring Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The latest U.S. tactic tied to trade isn’t being received well in the Chinese capital: The official Xinhua News Agency said the Trump administration’s “flip-flopping” is hurting U.S. “national credibility.”

And Trump’s trade advisers are not on the same page, and not shy about disclosing their differences. The Hill: White House senior aide Peter Navarro, during an interview with NPR, called Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s assertion that a U.S.-China trade was on hold “an unfortunate sound bite.”

Also taking aim at China’s theft of intellectual property from the United States, the administration said it wants to send a message by limiting the duration of visas available to Chinese students who study in certain fields in this country, The Associated Press reports.

Today, China rejected as “ridiculous” the U.S. assertions that it is militarizing the South China Sea, Reuters reports. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said this week that the U.S. would confront China’s actions in the disputed waterways.

Trade: The Trump administration is getting tougher with European allies, in addition to China. The Wall Street Journal reports the United States plans to hit the European Union with steel and aluminum tariffs. The two sides face a Friday deadline.

Ukraine: The New York Times: Authorities in Kiev revealed an elaborate fiction in which prominent Russian war correspondent Arkady Babchenko, in exile in Ukraine, had supposedly been shot and killed on Tuesday. Instead, he attended a news conference Wednesday and apologized to his colleagues and to his wife. Babchenko and police said they faked his death as part of a sting to try to apprehend unnamed individuals who plotted to kill him. They suggested Russian intelligence wanted him dead. The hoax was widely criticized.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➔ Campaigns & Politics: Trump endorsed Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday, picking the incumbent in a primary battle against Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who served eight months in prison in 2016 for tax fraud. Donovan won Trump’s approval despite having voted against the GOP’s tax overhaul and against repealing ObamaCare (The Hill).

The Hill’s Scott Wong reports that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) met quietly on Tuesday with ailing Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) and wife Cindy at their home outside Sedona. Ducey will have the power to appoint someone if McCain’s seat comes open. McCain’s allies have been pushing for Cindy to replace him (The Hill).

As Trump swings through Texas, some promising news for home state Sen. Ted Cruz (R).

Quinnipiac Poll: Cruz leads Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) by 11 points.

Here is an interesting development that is catching on among conservatives…

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is accusing tech companies of trying to censor conservatives (The Hill).

Trump’s adult sons, Eric and Donald Jr., have been at the forefront of this, both claiming that they’ve noticed shenanigans and even warnings when social media users view their accounts.

Elsewhere from the campaign trail and the hill … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on June 12 becomes the longest-serving GOP Senate leader ever (Politico profile) … Rep. Barbara Comstock’s (R-Va.) challenger compares her to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in a new campaign ad (The Hill) … Green groups are backing Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D) primary challenger in California (The Hill) … Senators are demanding national security adviser John Bolton reconsider his elimination of a top cyber post (The Hill) … Poll finds young people feel more empowered (The Associated Press).

➔ State Watch: Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott (R) unveiled a 40-page list of recommendations designed to protect children against school shootings after 10 were killed and a dozen more injured at Santa Fe High School outside Houston earlier this month (Dallas Morning News).

Florida: The families of some Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students in Parkland have formed a political action committee to go after the National Rifle Association and seek a ban on some types of guns (Miami Herald).

Virginia: The state Senate approved a budget to expand Medicaid to cover as many as 400,000 low income people (The Hill).

Louisiana: Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill that would ban abortions after 15 weeks, making it the most restrictive abortion ban in the country (The Hill).

California: The state Senate passed a bill that would reinstate the net neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal last year (The Verge).

New Jersey: The Garden State on Wednesday became the second in the nation after Massachusetts to adopt a mandate that all individuals must have health insurance (Politico).

The Morning Report is created by journalists Jonathan Easley jeasley@digital-stage.thehill.com & Alexis Simendinger asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com. Suggestions? Tips? We want to hear from you! Share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!

OPINION

We should condemn Roseanne, yes, but ignoring others is true hypocrisy, by GOP strategist Jen Kerns, opinion contributor with the Hill. https://bit.ly/2sjHA2e

What does Trump want in his on-again, off-again China trade war?, by former White House economic adviser Jeffrey Frankel, opinion contributor with The Hill. https://bit.ly/2xwIspa

WHERE AND WHEN

Congress is in recess until the week of June 4.

The president flies to Houston this morning and will meet with family members and community leaders associated with the recent Santa Fe school shooting. At the St. Regis Hotel, he’ll hold a roundtable with political supporters and give a speech over lunch to benefit the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Trump then will fly to Dallas and participate in a political program in the evening at the Adolphus Hotel to benefit the Republican National Committee, and his reelection campaign. He is scheduled to return to the White House tonight. The president’s political appearances are all closed to the press today.

Secretary Pompeo meets at 9 a.m. with North Korea’s vice-chairman of the central committee Kim Yong Chol in New York City. The secretary meets with reporters at 2:15 p.m. at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel.

ELSEWHERE

> The Federal Reserve Board of Governors advanced a proposal to loosen one of the most controversial rules written under the Dodd-Frank banking law passed after the 2008 financial crisis. It’s the first step in rewriting the so-called Volcker Rule for financial institutions. https://bit.ly/2Jm22cJ

> The hacking threat to critical U.S. infrastructure is growing larger. New research from Dragos, a firm that specializes in industrial cybersecurity, shows that a hacker group that specializes in infrastructure attacks is expanding its operations. https://bit.ly/2xu1w7I

> The Competitive Enterprise Institute will announce today that Mick Mulvaney, the Director of Office Management and Budget, will give the keynote address at the group’s June 28 annual dinner and reception. The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg will be the master of ceremonies and will honor property rights activist Hernando de Soto with an award.

THE CLOSER

And finally … Lost pets. Some interesting tales — and tails — in the news in the last two weeks. The takeaway: Facebook, Twitter, microchipping and pet-detective efforts have changed the way we venture in search of furry, feathered and scaly friends.

On Wednesday in Binghamton, N.Y., the owner of a very large red-tailed boa constrictor reported it missing through the local humane society’s Facebook alerts: “The snake was last seen near Binghamton High School and was described as 6-foot-5 inches long, with a pink and rainbow tint. Red-tailed boa constrictors eat small animals.”

On Monday, Buffalo, N.Y., company Sherlock Bones Lost and Hound Recovery made headlines after a local sports anchorman found his runaway dog Peanut via one of the group’s high-tech “pet recovery” cages, baited with food and monitored with cellular cameras viewed on smartphones.

And a week ago in Peoria, Ariz., Jake, a seven-year-old coonhound, earned his 15 minutes of fame, including a star turn on ABC’s evening news. He traveled from Pennsylvania back to his owners, thanks to a microchip, a local rescue organization, lots of phone calls and a Facebook-organized team of volunteer drivers. (Video capturing his homecoming showed leaps of happiness when he spied his family).