The Weekly List

This week, in a letter, White House counsel Pat  Cipollone issued a blanket refusal of records and testimony from Trump  and dozens of current and former White House staff, saying Trump did not  recognize Congress as a law enforcement body with the legitimate  purpose to investigate. While the letter sent shock waves, Congress’s  reaction was decidedly muted as House Democratic leaders sought to avoid  impeachment, as other deadlines passed without cooperation. This week Trump welcomed another far-right  authoritarian to the White House, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,  whom Trump likened to a “twin brother.” Tensions escalated with Iran,  and the regime issued conflicting statements and stances, and  increasingly stood alone. More troubling stories about atrocities being  committed and contemplated against migrants surfaced, including a  planned operational blitz to round up 10,000 migrants in 10 U.S. cities.  Trump rolled out a new immigration plan, emphasizing skills over family  ties, in an uncharacteristically low-energy Rose Garden speech that was  met with a cool reception. Attacks on abortion rights were front and  center of the national dialogue as Alabama passed the country’s most  restrictive ban, setting up a possible challenge for Roe v. Wade. Other  states are set to follow. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-131/

This week marked a subtle shift in House  Democrats’ position on impeachment, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and  her committee chairs cited a “constitutional crisis,” and argued Trump  was “goading” them and giving them no choice with his continued  stonewalling. The House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney  General William Barr in contempt of Congress, and threatened the same  for former White House counsel Don McGahn. Trump said he would block  special counsel Robert Mueller from testifying, and later in the week  backed off. Notably, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee  served the first subpoena on a member of Trump’s family, Donald Trump  Jr. There was more reporting on Trump’s irreverence  around norms and laws, including his attempts to have McGahn publicly  state he did not believe Trump obstructed justice, and dispatching  personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to spur investigations likely  to help his re-election. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-130/

This week a leaked letter sent from special  counsel Robert Mueller to Attorney General William Barr days after Barr  released his four-page “summary” indicated Mueller did not believe that  Barr captured the “context, nature, and substance” of his work.  Mueller’s letter, leaked in part to the Post  the day before Barr was set to testify before the Senate, shook the  country and set off a firestorm, including allegations Barr had lied in  previous Congressional testimony. His demeanor at his Senate testimony  did little to mollify concern that Barr had acted in concert with  Trump’s team to shape the narrative ahead of the redacted report’s  release, and was continuing to protect Trump from its contents and  repercussions. House Democrats sounded the alarms and escalated  matters as Trump, his family, and regime all continued to stonewall  Congressional demands, including a lawsuit to block Deutsche Bank from  cooperating with House subpoenas and Barr being a no-show for House  testimony. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wore the gravity of the situation  in her demeanor at her weekly press conference, admitting she had  trouble sleeping after watching the top law enforcement officer’s  performance. Pelosi, who has been committed to avoiding impeachment, was  reported to be losing patience. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-129/

This week Trump’s White House refused all requests by House Democrats  to interview current or former members of the regime, or to turn over  records, including those requested by subpoena. The NYT  Editorial Board noted Trump “is effectively declaring lawmakers  powerless over him. This, warn the experts, puts the nation in uncharted  territory and threatens to erode its democratic foundations.” With  Congress out of town for a second holiday week, the feeling of Trump’s  omnipotence was all the more palpable. This week while the country grappled with the contents of the  redacted Mueller report, Trump and his allies invoked a failed “coup”  and threatened to investigate the investigator. They also sought to  downplay Russian interference and its impact in 2016 — with Jared  Kushner dismissing Russian efforts as “some Facebook ads.” Alarming  reporting indicated Trump is refusing to work to safeguard the 2020  election, nor would his campaign pledge not to take stolen information  again, even as FBI director Christopher Wray said Moscow’s interference  in the past has been a “dress rehearsal” for the 2020 presidential  contest. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-128/

This week Attorney General William Barr publicly  released a redacted version of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s  report, almost a month after he delivered it to Barr. The redacted  report differed substantially from Barr’s March 24 letter, as well as  from statements delivered by Barr at a press conference hours before the  report’s release — casting Barr more as a defense attorney for Trump  than an attorney general. Concerns grew further when it was revealed  Trump’s White House attorneys had previewed the report in consultation  with the Justice Department days earlier. On Thursday, as the redacted report was  released, Trump, who had expressed no interest in reading the report,  seemed confident he had turned the corner and was in the clear. As the  press and public finally dug into the contents of the redacted report  and statements by current and former White House official witnesses, by  Friday, Trump shifted back to anger and attack mode, starting by  retaliating against former White House counsel Don McGahn. After reading  the report, Senator Elizabeth Warren became the first 2020 contender to  call for impeachment hearings. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-127/

This week, Trump’s frustration with migrants coming to the southern  border boiled over, as he purged the Department of Homeland Security,  and empowered immigrant hardliner Stephen Miller to be in charge of the  regime’s immigration policy. As the week ended, 12 of the 30 senior  roles at DHS were either vacant or filled with “acting” leaders.  Departures of senior officials at the cabinet level and below are at  record levels. Meanwhile, Trump continues to consolidate power, act  unilaterally, and welcome the “flexibility” of using “acting” directors  whom he can hire and fire at will — without needing the oversight of the  Senate to confirm them. Troubling reporting this week indicated Trump instructed his incoming  Secretary of DHS to break the law, assuring him he would be pardoned.  Reporting also indicated Trump and Miller had contemplated releasing  migrant detainees into sanctuary cities as a means to punish political  enemies. When confronted with the story, the White House pushed back,  only to have Trump say indeed that was his plan. Trump also looked for  ways to increasingly use military troops at the border, including in  ways that violate the law. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-126/

This week, two weeks after Mueller had sent his final report to  Attorney General William Barr, members of the special counsel  anonymously broke their silence, indicating to the Times and the Post  that their findings were more troubling than Barr’s letter had  indicated. Meanwhile Trump changed his position on public release of the  report, as he and his surrogates went into attack mode against the  Democrats and Mueller’s team. Republicans rebuked Trump this week, failing to stand with him on his  threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border and to come up with an  alternative to Obamacare ahead of the 2020 election. The House joined  the Senate, voting to end U.S. involvement in Yemen, marking the first  time both chambers of Congress have voted to invoke the war-powers  resolution to end U.S. military engagement in a foreign conflict. Read the full list:  https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-125/

This week was dominated by news of the Mueller report, which was  delivered to Attorney General William Barr last Friday, but has yet to  be given to Congress or the American people. On Sunday, AG Barr sent a  four-page letter to Congress, which he characterized as a “summary” of  the Mueller report, but later in the week, in a second letter, wrote it  “did not purport to be, an exhaustive recounting of the Special  Counsel’s investigation or report” which was revealed to be nearly 400  pages long. Barr’s Sunday letter said that Mueller did not find evidence Trump or  his campaign knowingly colluded with Russia, but on obstruction of  justice charges, Mueller did not render an opinion. Barr and deputy  attorney general Rod Rosenstein however concluded not to proceed with  criminal charges, and Trump instantly weaponized the information to  falsely claim he was fully exonerated, and pivot to attacking Democrats  and the media, with the help of his allies. The media was caught on its  heels, as some of the initial reporting incorrectly cited the Mueller  report, including the front page of Monday’s New York Times.  Trump aides who had been jailed or investigated by Mueller’s team were  given media opportunities to declare themselves as victims of an  overaggressive prosecutor. By Friday, bowing to public pressure, Barr in  a second letter said he would release a redacted version of the Mueller  report by mid-April or sooner. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-124/

This week started with maniacal tweeting by Trump: more than 50 tweets  over the weekend on a variety of unrelated topics, including multiple  retweets of conspiracy theorists. The week’s news was overshadowed by  Trump’s daily attacks against deceased Senator John McCain and George  Conway, husband of senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. The  off-kilter — even by his standards — behavior by Trump seemed  foreboding, and sure enough, on Friday, Mueller’s final report was  delivered to Attorney General William Barr. Among the subjects of his ire on Twitter this week, Trump continued  to focus on alleged and unsubstantiated bias of social media companies,  as his ally Rep. Devin Nunes filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit  against Twitter and three Twitter accounts. Congressional probes moved  ahead, including new revelations that Jared Kushner used WhatsApp to  communicate on official White House business, including with foreign  officials, and in possible violations of the Presidential Records  Act — as did Ivanka Trump for White House business with her use of a  personal email account. Meanwhile the White House refused to cooperate  with Congressional document requests, as Rep. Elijah Cummings accused  them of “stonewalling.” Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-123/

Trump issued his first veto after the House and Senate voted to block  his emergency declaration. The veto followed Trump’s declaration of a  national emergency after Congress refused to fund his wall, which was  unprecedented. Taken together, Trump irreverently thumbed his nose at  the separations of power. Trump also continued his record pace of appointments to the judicial  branch, this week with the aid of newly installed ally Sen. Lindsey  Graham as Judiciary Committee Chair. Graham discarded a century old norm  of allowing in-state senators to submit a “blue slip” to oppose  nominations, allowing Trump to appoint two judges to the 9th Circuit  Court. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-122/

This week a bombshell exposé by Jane Mayer on the ties between Trump and Fox News sparked questions of whether America had its first version of state TV. The piece had broad fallout, and sparked a renewed conversation on the line between journalism and propaganda. This week Democrats ramped up investigations, while Trump hit back and escalated his pace of daily lies and misleading statements. With Congressional hearings finally underway, Trump and his regime continued a pattern of irreverent corruption and kleptocracy, as well as continued efforts to limit transparency and hide information. A shocking story by an NBC affiliate revealed U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has been keeping a database of journalists and other activists involved at the Southern border, the second list by the Trump regime targeting U.S. journalists that has been uncovered since Trump came into power. The regime also reportedly revoked an award from a journalist who had been critical of Trump on social media. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-121/

This week the country was riveted by the public testimony of Michael  Cohen, Trump’s long-time attorney and fixer, before the House Oversight  Committee — the first public testimony in the new Democrat-controlled  Congress. Cohen’s testimony overwhelmed the spectacle of Trump’s second  summit with North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un in Hanoi — which produced  no concrete results, despite a pre-planned joint signing ceremony.  Cohen, who said he is now in “constant contact” with federal  prosecutors, gave seven hours of testimony, offering an insider’s  perspective and many new details which, by week’s end, were already  leading Congressional investigators to call more witnesses and open new  areas of inquiry. As Cohen was testifying and Trump meeting with Kim, Jared Kushner met  with the Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince MBS, then Turkish President  Recep Erdogan. Just as Kushner stayed silent during his Saudi visit on  the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Trump sided with another dictator, saying  he believed Kim played no part of the brutal torture and death of  American college student Otto Warmbier, before trying to reverse himself  the next day. During Kushner’s trip, the Times reported Trump  had ordered officials to grant his son-in-law top-secret security  clearance, overruling concerns by U.S. intelligence and former White  House Counsel Don McGahn. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-120/

This week the FBI thwarted a major domestic terrorism plot by a white  nationalist serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard, who had  called for the establishment of a “white homeland.” His target list  included Democratic politicians and cable-TV hosts, almost all of whom  were subjects of Trump’s public ire on Twitter or in words. Nonetheless,  Trump continued his attacks on the media, calling them the “enemy of  the people,” and repeatedly referring to them as “fake news.” When asked  if his rhetoric played a role, Trump responded, “No, I don’t. I think  my language is very nice.” Trump has also started in recent weeks to  attack fact-checkers as fake news. Trump ally Roger Stone found himself hauled back into court this week  for posting an image of a federal judge next to a crosshairs, while  other Trump supporters used words like “civil war” and “coup” on-air as  the country waited for Mueller’s findings. In conjunction with his new  book, former FBI director Andrew McCabe spoke to media outlets about  F.B.I. investigations into Trump, the prospect of invoking the 25th  Amendment, and concern that Trump is a Russian asset. In response, Trump  spent the week attacking his old, familiar target. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-119/

This was a jarring week as Trump declared a national emergency after  Congress refused to fund his wall — perhaps his most brazen  authoritarian act yet. Trump’s predilection not to govern, but rather  rule by an unprecedented executive fiat, set off alarm bells for  Constitutional separation of powers, as Trump departed early Friday for a  weekend of golf at Mar-a-Lago. This week the Mueller probe made news as reporting indicated Trump’s  former campaign chair Paul Manafort discussed a peace plan for Ukraine  and handed off internal polling data in a secretive meeting to a  business associate with ties to Russian intelligence, and a search  warrant revealed Roger Stone was in direct contact with WikiLeaks while  interacting with the Trump campaign —both in the months before the 2016  election. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-118/

This week was filled with news of Congressional inquiries, subpoenas,  and investigations, as House committee chairs took the first steps to  hold Trump and his regime accountable. Leaks from the regime heightened  concerns about a White House rapidly devolving to the Trump  Organization, with Trump largely freelancing and acting unilaterally,  and taking the advice from a small group of sycophantic insiders. With the government reopened, Trump delivered an otherwise mundane  State of the Union speech, with the most memorable part being his attack  on the investigations against him, evoking former President Richard  Nixon’s 1974 speech shortly before impeachment proceedings began. Trump  continued to push his manufactured crisis at the southern border,  sending thousands more troops as he stoked racism and fear. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-117/