Comey Has Paralyzed the White House

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Mike Allen: “Next week, Comey comes out of the shadows, with Senate Intelligence Committee testimony scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday that promises to be the most gripping television to come off of Capitol Hill since the Clinton impeachment hearings or Watergate.”

“Leaks about Comey’s conclusion that Trump was pressuring him, and his real-time documentation in potentially devastating memos, has the White House and its allies worried that this could be their worst week since taking office.”

“The Comey chaos is making staff changes extremely difficult, even though Trump continues to ruminate to friends about his lineup.”

Trump Plans Week-long Focus on Infrastructure

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President Trump “will seek to put a spotlight on his vows to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system and spur $1 trillion in new investment in roads, waterways and other infrastructure with a week-long series of events starting Monday in the Rose Garden,” the Washington Post reports.

“The events — billed as ‘infrastructure week’ — are part of a stepped-up effort since the president’s return a week ago from his first foreign trip to show that the White House remains focused on its agenda, despite cascading headlines about his administration’s ties to Russia.”

New York Times: “What the president will offer instead over the coming days, his advisers said, are the contours of a plan. The federal government would make only a fractional down payment on rebuilding the nation’s aging infrastructure. Mr. Trump would rely on a combination of private industry, state and city tax money, and borrowed cash to finance the rest.”

Obama Decision Now Threatens Health Care Law

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“Obama administration officials knew they were on shaky ground in spending billions of dollars on health insurance subsidies without clear authority. But they did not think a long-shot court challenge by House Republicans was cause for deep concern,” the New York Times reports.

“For one thing, they would be out of office by the time a final ruling in the case, filed in 2014, was handed down. They also believed that a preliminary finding against the administration would ultimately be tossed out. Finally, they figured that President Hillary Clinton could take care of the problem, if necessary.”

“Well, they are out of office, Mrs. Clinton is not president and the uncertain status of the cost-sharing payments now looms as the biggest threat to the stability of the insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act.”

Waiting for Volume Five

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As we patiently wait for the last installment of The Years of Lyndon Johnson — the greatest political biography ever written, in my view — the Paris Review runs a great interview with author Robert Caro.

I can’t start writing a book until I’ve thought it through and can see it whole in my mind. So before I start writing, I boil the book down to three paragraphs, or two or one—that’s when it comes into view. That process might take weeks. And then I turn those paragraphs into an outline of the whole book. That’s what you see up here on my wall now—twenty-seven typewritten pages. That’s the fifth volume. Then, with the whole book in mind, I go chapter by chapter. I sit down at the typewriter and type an outline of that chapter, let’s say if it’s a long chapter, seven pages—it’s really the chapter in brief, without any of the supporting evidence. Then, each chapter gets a notebook, which I fill with all the materials I want to use—quotations and facts pulled from all of the research I’ve done.

Democrats Outraged Over Trump Ban on Info Requests

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“Hill Democrats are outraged by a new Trump administration policy to ignore information requests from members and senators unless they come from committee or subcommittee chairman. They argue it’s part of a broader pattern by the White House, designed to make the executive branch less responsive to Congress,” Politico reports.

“And they say it effectively locks them out of information necessary for government oversight.”

Playbook: “This is another example of why it is hard to see Democrats coming to the table with Trump and congressional Republicans on any major infrastructure or tax reform package. It could also cause further problems for Trump and GOP leadership when they need Democrats to pass the debt limit and other must-pass bills.”

Special Counsel Expanding Scope of Investigation

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“The special counsel investigating possible ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russia’s government has taken over a separate criminal probe involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and may expand his inquiry to investigate the roles of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in the firing of FBI Director James Comey,” the AP reports.

“The move to consolidate the matters, involving allegations of misuse of Ukrainian government funds, indicates that Mueller is assuming a broad mandate in his new role running the investigation.”

GOP Strategists Embrace Anti-Media Strategy for 2018

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McClatchy: “A party that traditionally has had a fraught relationship with the media has become outright hostile, led by a president who picks more fights with journalists than any GOP leader since Richard Nixon.”

“But interviews with Republican strategists and party leaders across the country reveal that what started as genuine anger at allegedly unfair coverage — or an effort to deflect criticism — is now an integral part of next year’s congressional campaigns.”

“The hope, say these officials, is to convince Trump die-hards that these mid-term races are as much a referendum on the media as they are on President Trump. That means embracing conflict with local and national journalists, taking them on to show Republicans voters that they, just like the president, are battling a biased press corps out to destroy them.”

Putin Says Hackers Could Have Framed Russia

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Russian President Vladimir Putin told NBC News that hackers who interfered with U.S. elections could have come from “anywhere.”

Said Putin: “Hackers can be anywhere. They can be in Russia, in Asia…even in America, Latin America. They can even be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very skillfully and professionally shifted the blame, as we say, onto Russia. Can you imagine something like that? In the midst of a political battle?”

He added: “By some calculations it was convenient for them to release this information, so they released it, citing Russia. Could you imagine something like that? I can.”

Trump Unlikely to Stop Comey Testimony

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President Trump “does not plan to invoke executive privilege to try to prevent James Comey, the former FBI director, from providing potentially damaging testimony to Congress on statements the president made about an investigation into his former national security adviser,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump could still move to block the testimony next week, given his history of changing his mind at the last minute about major decisions. But legal experts have said that Mr. Trump has a weak case to invoke executive privilege because he has publicly addressed his conversations with Mr. Comey, and any such move could carry serious political risks.”

White House Stays Quiet on Kushner

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“From undisclosed meetings with a Putin-allied banker to the suggestion of secret backchannels using Russian communication equipment, the past week’s headlines have gotten increasingly dire for Jared Kushner,” Axios reports.

“A normally chatty and combative White House has been largely radio silent on the Kushner drama with senior administration officials like National Economic Director Gary Cohn and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster refusing to comment when asked directly about the matter in press briefings.”

Nunes Committee Asked for ‘Unmasking’ of Americans

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“The Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee asked U.S. spy agencies late last year to reveal the names of U.S. individuals or organizations contained in classified intelligence on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, engaging in the same practice that President Trump has accused the Obama administration of abusing,” the Washington Post reports.

“The chairman of the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), has since cast the practice of ‘unmasking’ of U.S. individuals and organizations mentioned in classified reports as an abuse of surveillance powers by the outgoing Obama administration.”

Trump Search for FBI Chief Seen as Chaotic

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President Trump “is still looking for a new FBI director more than three weeks after he fired James Comey, and sources familiar with the recruiting process say it has been chaotic and that job interviews led by Trump have been brief,” Reuters reports.

“Three close associates of three contenders for the job, all of whom have been interviewed by Trump, said the candidates were summoned to the White House for 10- to 20-minute conversations with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those conversations, which followed initial interviews at the Justice Department, have been light on questions about substantive issues facing the agency.”

Ethics Office Will Challenge Unsigned Waivers

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“The Office of Government Ethics plans to press the White House to clarify when it issued a slew of ethics waivers giving its staffers permission to interact with their former employers or clients, an indication that the exemptions might not have been properly granted,” the Washington Post reports.

“Ten of the 14 waivers publicly disclosed this week by the White House are undated and unsigned, raising questions about when they were put in place.”

Bloomberg Leads Effort to Bypass Feds on Climate Deal

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Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg “is organizing an effort by governors, mayors, business leaders and other private citizens to make sure that Americans play an active role in the Paris Agreement — with or without the federal government,” Yahoo News reports.

Said Bloomberg: “Americans are not walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement. Just the opposite — we are forging ahead. Mayors, governors, and business leaders from both political parties are signing onto a statement of support that we will submit to the UN — and together, we will reach the emission reduction goals the U.S. made in Paris in 2015.”

“If successful, this will be the first time U.S. citizens, local and state officials circumvented the federal government to negotiate an agreement with the United Nations.”

Mueller Expands Probe to Flynn’s Turkish Ties

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Special counsel Robert Mueller “is expanding his probe to assume control of a grand jury investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn,” three sources told Reuters.

“The move means Mueller’s politically charged inquiry will now look into Flynn’s paid work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman in 2016, in addition to contacts between Russian officials and Flynn and other Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election.”