Meet Joseph diGenova, the newest member of President Trump's legal team.
| | | | | The newest member of Donald Trump’s legal team, Joseph diGenova, has lately been appearing on cable news to blast the Mueller investigation as part of a “brazen plot” to “frame” the president—revenge of the Swamp and the Deep State, if you will. But earlier this month diGenova was yukking it up with Washington’s elite journalists about the administration he would soon be working for. And his future boss, President Trump, was there too. At the white-tie Gridiron Club dinner on March 4, diGenova was one of the event’s “ringers”—non-members who are brought in to supplement the singing sketches that are part of the 133-year-old dinner’s program. DiGenova, according to attendees at the dinner (where no recording is allowed), participated in several humorous songs, including one set that parodied the Trump administration in the style of the Marx Brothers. His role was as Groucho Marx playing Michael Wolff. In one song, a reimagining of “The Laws of My Administration” from Duck Soup, diGenova as Grouch/Wolff sang: I showered them with flattery, they’re easy to deceive. They thought Trump had vouched for me, boy were they naïve. They even found a couch for me, so thank you, Sloppy Steve! Poor guy, they send him packing—on extended family leave. Read more... |
|
|
| | One More Thing—There’s one GOP lawyer and Washington fixture who won’t be joining Trump’s legal team: The Washington Post reports that Ted Olson had been approached by the president’s lawyers in “recent days.”
“But after reviewing the offer and weighing potential conflicts with his clients at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he is a partner, Olson is not planning to join Trump’s team, a top executive at the firm said Tuesday,” the Post reported.
| |
| |
| | Trump called Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to congratulate him on his Sunday reelection, the president said Tuesday. “We had a very good call,” Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “We will probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”
The call, and Trump’s decision not to mention either the Kremlin’s alleged rigging of Russia’s election or their meddling in America’s, provoked a sharp reaction from some congressional foreign policy hawks. John McCain released a statement saying that “an American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future.” Jeff Flake told my colleagues Haley Byrd and Jenna Lifhits that Trump calling Putin “would have been like me calling Fidel Castro” to congratulate the late Cuban dictator on his election.
Asked about McCain’s statement, press secretary Sarah Sanders responded that “we don’t get to dictate how other countries operate. What we do know is that Putin has been elected in their country, and that’s not something that we can dictate to them how they operate.” Read more... | |
|
| | Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm employed by the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, came under fire this week following reports that they had surreptitiously harvested Facebook user data. Now it seems that Trump’s 2020 campaign team is breaking ties with CA as well, telling Politico they have “no existing contracts” with the firm and no plans to coordinate during the next cycle.
| |
|
| | North Korea Watch—National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster attended a meeting this past weekend in San Francisco with his counterparts in the Japanese and South Korean governments.
It was the third such West Coast meeting between McMaster, Shotaro Yachi of Japan, and Chung Eui-yong of South Korea—the last one was in January—and the discussion touched on issues about joint military exercises as well as the possible meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
At least one of the aides joining McMaster on the trip was Allison Hooker, a career Korean expert and State Department veteran on the National Security Council who also served in Obama’s White House. | |
|
| |
Must-Read of the Day—My colleague John McCormack attended oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court for a case concerning a California law requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to also advertise government-funded abortions. Read all about it here.
| |
|
|
|
| |
