BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA

Thursday, April 26, 2018

—Trump, when asked about Melania’s birthday

BREAKING

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has crossed the border between North and South Korea for a summit with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in today. This is the first time a North Korean leader has crossed the border since 1953.

D.T. PHONE HOME

President Trump is stuck between political and legal woes. He can't claim a close legal relationship with his probably-going-to-jail fixer Michael Cohen, for political reasons, but distancing himself from Cohen increases his legal jeopardy, because it means more of their correspondence over the years won’t be privileged attorney-client material.

Case in point: Trump phoned in to Fox & Friends this morning and claimed Cohen did only a tiny amount of legal work for him. It took New York prosecutors overseeing the Cohen investigation about two hours to cite that claim in court as evidence that most of the material the FBI seized from Cohen won't be privileged at all.

Trump went on to tell Fox & Friends that he might eventually begin ordering the Justice Department to investigate his enemies and drop investigations affecting him and his friends. Testifying on Capitol Hill today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said of Mueller’s investigation: “This thing needs to conclude.”

Not entirely unrelated: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14-7 to advance legislation protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Republican Senators Thom Tillis (NC), Lindsey Graham (SC), Jeff Flake (AZ), and Chuck Grassley (IA), the committee chairman, joined all Democrats to clear the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to never let the full Senate vote on it (because he is fully captured by Trump and it never stops being pathetic).

Also not unrelated: If you need a good laugh/cry, read this story about all the desperate things Cohen has done to suck up to Trump over the years, and all the predictable ways Trump has embarrassed him in return. One spoiler: Trump showed up late to Cohen’s son’s bar mitzvah then gave a ridiculous speech about how Cohen had begged him to be there. Heartwarming stuff.

PRUITT IN THE ($52,000 AND BULLETPROOF?) HOT SEAT

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt faced two different congressional committees today, which provided him an opportunity to remind everyone just how sleazy he is.

Pruitt told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he did, in fact, give his chief of staff permission to give enormous raises to two of his lackeys, in defiance of the White House. This directly contradicts his recent claim to Fox News that he didn't know anything about the raises. It’s totally damning stuff, so presumably nothing will be done.

Pruitt also misrepresented himself when he said the EPA inspector general confirmed he’d received a disproportionate number of threats, prompting an unusual rebuke from the IG’s office. Anyway, he should be fired. But that’s been true for a while! What a time to be alive.

BILL COSBY

A Pennsylvania jury convicted Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. Dozens of women have credibly accused Cosby of similar crimes. He is the first prominent abuser to face criminal consequences for his actions in the #MeToo era.

Cosby, who championed “respectability politics” before becoming one of the world’s most famous sexual predators, took the news in stride, calling the prosecutor in the case an asshole soon after the verdict was delivered while both were still in the courtroom.

An estimated 40,000 people marched on Arizona’s Capitol protesting low teacher pay and education funding. Thousands in Colorado did the same. Hear Arizona teacher Kelley Fisher talk to Lovett about what teachers in Arizona are protesting for in Tuesday’s Pod Save America →

Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination to run the Department of Veterans Affairs today after allegations surfaced that he drank on the job, improperly dispensed drugs, and created a toxic work environment.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis aired differences with President Trump by saying the Iran nuclear deal includes "robust" verification. Mattis’ views on the Iran deal are well known, but his vocal support for it is notable coming days before Trump is expected to terminate the agreement.

The Senate voted 57-42 to confirm Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state with seven Democrats and every Republican voting for him. Senators also confirmed Twitter troll Richard Grenell to be America’s ambassador to Germany.

In what amounts to a special exemption for Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, a federal judge in New York has appointed an outside lawyer to sift through seized materials to determine which of them is privileged. That attorney is a senior partner at Bracewell—until recently the law firm of Trump’s new counsel Rudy Giuliani. So that’s disconcerting. From Brian: People in positions of authority are apparently never going to learn that appeasing Trump to head off bad faith right-wing attacks won’t work out well in the end. Just ask James Comey.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani met with Special Counsel Robert Mueller yesterday to discuss a potential Trump-Mueller interview. Game meet game!

The parents of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old college student who died after being held in captivity by North Korea for 17 months, is suing North Korea in federal court for “brutally torturing and murdering” their son. Trump called the leader of the regime honorable this week.

New Hampshire's GOP-led legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, but GOP Governor Chris Sununu has said he'll veto it. Note: No one’s been executed in the state in 80 years.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who passively allows Devin Nunes to chip away at the rule of law every single day, pushed out the House chaplain because, according to lawmakers, the chaplain’s prayer about corporate tax cuts wasn’t supply-sidey enough for some people. It all trickles down from the Big Guy, after all.

Pitbull is touring with Tony Robbins because we live in hell.

On Crooked Conversations: Why are Republicans beating Democrats at the Internet?

Crooked Contributor Symone Sanders talks to the chairman of Priorities USA, Guy Cecil, about how Democratic Super PACs are investing in digital ads and pulling out of TV, and what this means for the midterms.

Listen →

According to Pew, Democratic voters have long been more amenable to compromise than Republicans. But that gap has closed rapidly since Trump became president.

From Dan Pfeiffer: This polling tidbit will undoubtedly be used to do "pox on both your houses" punditry about the party bases, when this movement is a rational response by the Dem base to the corrupt Machiavellian actions of Trump and McConnell.

Kanye West and John Legend have agreed to disagree about West’s support for Donald Trump, but West’s tweets aren’t keeping Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian from their dinner plans later this week. I wonder where they’ll go. Some place fancy? Low-key? Fun to think about. From Brian: I am so bored by this story that everyone on staff has to wait until I finish editing the draft to sneak more Kanye shit in here.  

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