A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
Day 789: A little longer.
Today in one sentence: Mueller obtained warrants to search Michael Cohen's emails and cell phones in 2017; Trump exaggerated his wealth in order to secure additional loans from Deutsche Bank; the Supreme Court ruled that the government can detain immigrants indefinitely with past criminal records; and the House Judiciary Committee said it received "tens of thousands" of requested documents but the White House has ignored the requests.
1/ Robert Mueller obtained warrants to search Michael Cohen’s emails and cell phones in July, August and November 2017, according to the unsealed search warrant applications. One warrant allowed Mueller’s office to search Cohen’s emails dating to June 2015 when Cohen still worked for the Trump Organization. In particular, Mueller sought records of any “funds of benefits received by or offered” to Cohen “on behalf of, any foreign government,” as well as evidence of efforts “to conduct activities on behalf of, for the benefit of, or at the direction of any foreign government.” In February 2018, Mueller’s office began referring parts of its Cohen investigation to federal prosecutors in New York, including relevant emails from its warrants. Investigators used the search warrants as the basis for an April 2018 raid of Cohen’s office, home, safety deposit box and a hotel room where he had been staying. Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Mueller was was appointed special counsel in May 2017. (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / Politico / CNN / NBC News)
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The prosecutor who handled Michael Flynn’s guilty plea has left the special counsel’s office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zainab Ahmad is the third senior member of Mueller’s team confirmed to leave the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts but hasn’t yet been sentenced. (Politico)
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Rod Rosenstein will stay at the Justice Department “a little longer” despite previously announced that he would leave in mid-March. (NBC News)
2/ Deutsche Bank loaned more than $2 billion to Trump over nearly two decades during his time as a real estate developer at a time when other banks wouldn’t lend to him. The bank repeatedly loaned money to Trump despite multiple business-related “red flags,” including instances where Trump exaggerated his wealth by an extra $2 billion in order to secure additional loans from the bank. In 2010, Trump returned to Deutsche Bank for $100 million loan, even though it had concluded at the time that Trump had overvalued some of his real estate assets by up to 70%. (New York Times / New York Times / CNBC)
3/ The Supreme Court ruled that the government can detain immigrants indefinitely with past criminal records, even if they were previously released from criminal custody. The ruling provides Trump more authority to arrest, detain and deport immigrants convicted of crimes. (Reuters / Associated Press / Politico / CNN)
4/ The House Judiciary Committee said it received “tens of thousands” of requested documents related to its investigation into whether Trump abused his power, obstructed justice or engaged in public corruption. The committee requested documents from 81 individuals, government agencies and others, including Trump family members, current and former business employees, Republican campaign staffers and former White House aides, the FBI, White House and WikiLeaks. The committee has received eight responses as of Tuesday morning, and the majority of the 8,195 pages of material the committee received was provided by Steve Bannon, who handed over 2,688 pages; Trump confidant Thomas Barrack, who supplied 3,349 pages; and the National Rifle Association, which turned over 1,466 pages, the Republicans said. (Washington Post / Politico / Reuters)
5/ The Trump administration, however, ignored the House Judiciary request for documents. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler had set a Monday deadline asking for documents related the firing of James Comey, internal discussions about the decision of Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia probe, details about any talks to dismiss, as well as records about payments Trump made as part of a hush-money scheme to keep his alleged extramarital affairs from going public. (CNN / Politico)
poll/ 71% of Americans say the economy is in good shape –the best rating during Trump’s presidency by two points. (CNN)
✏️ Notables.
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The Trump administration proposed placing a cap on federal student loan borrowing as a way curbing student loan debt, which has reached nearly $1.5 trillion. The plan is to prevent borrowers from taking out too many federal loans to the point where the debt becomes unmanageable, which the government argues will reduce college tuition rates. The president of the nonprofit Institute for College Access and Success said the there’s “no evidence” that the availability of federal loans has led to higher college costs. (NBC News)
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed ending a loan forgiveness program for public service workers and eliminating subsidized loans for low-income students. DeVos also proposed a 12% decrease in funding for her department for fiscal 2020. (CNN)
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The Trump administration won’t give the public more time to weigh in on its proposed rule restricting the Clean Water Act. [Editor’s note: I don’t have an account to this site, so I can’t read the whole article, but it felt necessary to flag] (Greenwire)
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Paul Ryan will join the board of the Fox Corporation – the parent company of Fox News. (CNBC / CNN)
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Elizabeth Warren called for eliminating the Electoral College as part of an effort to expand voting rights, because “every vote matters.” Separately, Colorado and 11 other states and the District of Columbia pledged to give their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote. (Politico / New York Times / Washington Post)
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Congressional Democrats asked the FBI to investigate the owner of the Florida massage parlor who allegedly sold access to Trump. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer called on federal agents to investigate “public reports about alleged activities by Ms. Li ‘Cindy’ Yang and her apparent relationship with the president.” The letter also called on the FBI to investigate whether another company started by Yang that “may be selling access to the president and members of his family to clients from China.” Yang’s attorney says she denies the allegations against her. (ABC News / Reuters)
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A federal appeals court will hear arguments in a case challenging Trump’s ownership of a luxury hotel down the street from the White House. The case represents the highest-level hearing yet for a lawsuit that claims Trump’s vast holdings are a conflict of interest between his businesses and his duties as president. The suit accuses Trump of violating the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving “any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state” or any U.S. state while in office. (NBC News)
💬 Dept. of Interpersonal Communication.
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Trump: “I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.” McCain died last August after a battle with brain cancer. (NBC News / USA Today / ABC News)
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Trump called Kellyanne Conway’s husband “a total loser!” after George Conway suggested on Twitter that Trump is not mentally fit to serve as president. (Washington Post / NBC News)
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Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and two parody accounts for $250 million over mean tweets. Nunes claims one Twitter account pretending to be his mom and another pretending to be a dairy cow in Iowa made fun of him and accused him of crimes, something Nunes says “no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life.” (New York Times / Politico / USA Today / CBS News)
A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
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