BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

—Mike Huckabee describing his colonoscopy

BREAKING

From The Washington Post: “Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three people familiar with the discussions… The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.”

IMAGINE ALL THE MEMOS WE HAVEN'T SEEN YET

What an awful day... for Paul Manafort and other potential criminals being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort had asked the court to dismiss his indictment, arguing that Mueller lacked the authority to investigate the kinds of financial crimes Manafort has been charged with.

Mueller responded in part with a heavily redacted memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that spells out Mueller’s specific authority to investigate Manafort, including “[a]llegations that Paul Manafort [c]ommitted a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.” Hey look, it’s the “c” word, coming from the Justice Department.

From Brian Beutler: It’s not surprising that Mueller would have this authority. But a straightforward reading of the memo also suggests that the government already knows Manafort cooperated with Russians to help Trump. So Mueller’s task would simply be figuring out if Manafort broke the law. No collusion? No. Collusion.

Mueller also reminded the court (as well as other Trump-adjacent criminals trying to act cool, like they’re totally not worried) that “a Special Counsel may conclude that investigating otherwise unrelated allegations against a central witness in the matter is necessary to obtain cooperation.” Note to the sketchy goon squad orbiting Trump: Mueller’s sources of leverage are vast.

PRUITT'S GOOGLE ALERTS ARE NOT IMPROVING

Today we learned that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt:

•Used a legal loophole to give big raises to his favorite political aides, even after the White House had allegedly rejected an official request for the pay increases.

•Pays below-market rent to a lobbyist landlord who also funded his previous campaign to be Oklahoma Attorney General.

•Had aides at EPA who were considering leasing a private jet for him (but ultimately decided against it).

Trump’s latest comment on him: “I hope he's going to be great.” That’s what you say during the confirmation hearings, not when he’s LED THE EPA FOR A YEAR. Trump generally allows people he likes, such as Pruitt, to go nuts corruption-wise. But this is the same notorious vote of confidence that has preceded just about every departure from this administration. Bye Scott?

Robert Mueller secured a 30-day sentence against Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who lied to Mueller’s investigators about conversations he had with Paul Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates—the first sentencing in the Mueller probe. Very solid witch-hunting day, overall.

A shooter at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California left at least three injured—one critically—before she died of a self-inflicted wound. According to The Daily Beast, one of the people shot was the woman’s boyfriend. From Jaclyn Corin of Parkland, FL: “The YouTube HQ shooting is proof that this is NOT just schools. Our country has a GUN problem. End of story.”

For the first time, the U.S. government publicly acknowledged that foreign spies could be using devices to track the location of cell phones, allowing them to intercept calls and messages in Washington D.C. Hey foreign spies, just because Facebook did it to us first, doesn’t make it right, OK?

The U.S. has proposed $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese electronics, machinery, etc. one day after China announced tariffs on $3 billion worth of U.S. imports.

Mexico says it will disband the caravan of Central American migrants heading towards the U.S.-Mexico border, though caravan organizers expect some to continue northward. Trump is now saying he wants to use the military to secure the border until the wall is built, but because it’s Trump, nobody has a clue what he means. From Crooked contributor Julissa Arce: Trump isn’t ignorant about all this; he’s lying.

Marco Rubio has been telling Parkland students he supports a law to keep 18-year-olds from buying rifles, but he’s also been pushing legislation to END a similar ban already in place in the District of Columbia. In a time of division, it’s nice that liberals and conservatives can come together to make fun of Marco Rubio for being so predictable.

A coalition of 17 states, Washington D.C., and six cities announced they are suing the Trump administration to block the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Trump’s animosity towards Amazon, which stems from the fact that its Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, is becoming more extreme. A source tells Vanity Fair  “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?” and is being advised to “cancel Amazon’s pending multi-billion contract with the Pentagon [and] encourage attorneys general in red states to open investigations into Amazon’s business practices.” Whatever you think of Amazon, this is very bad.

Kim Jong Un said he was “deeply moved” after a two-hour-long K-Pop performance. Noted.  

On Pod Save America: Jon, Jon, and Tommy discuss Sinclair and corruption, then Tommy talks to Sacramento activist Berry Accius about the protests over the shooting of Stephon Clark.

Listen →

Eleven of the 33 senior officials Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has reassigned are Native American, though Native Americans make up less than 10% of the DOI’s workforce. Zinke has reportedly told DOI officials that he “doesn’t care about diversity.” Yeah, we got that. (FYI, DOI is legally prohibited from reassigning people based on race.)  

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Executive Chairman David Smith says print media has “no credibility” and “serves no purpose… The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble [sic] which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away. Just no credibility.”

If you want to be credible, you need the top talent. Like this guy.

This man knits sweaters of places then goes to the places and takes selfies in the sweaters.

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox!