Congress
US Senate calls on British spy Christopher Steele to give evidence on explosive Trump-Russia dossier
Mr Steele has not yet responded to requests to meet with Senate officials – described as informal at this stage – for testimony, which have come over the last fortnight. But friends say he may be willing to speak about his investigation to senators and US officials if certain security conditions are met.
Lawmakers Hunt The Capitol For An Obamacare Bill Moved Between Secret Locations
Rep Trey "Benghazi" Gowdy a few moments ago on MSNBC pushing agst Congress investigating pic.twitter.com/e3hIwKaccX
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 2, 2017
Sen. Ron Johnson’s staff reportedly sent a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter to voter who wanted a town hall. Snopes: “Although the provenance of this letter was initially met with some skepticism online, Milwaukee station WDJT reported that it had indeed been received by Milwaukee resident Earl Good, a Vietnam veteran, after he made multiple attempts to personally contact the senator. Good admitted that he had been aggressive in his efforts and had once called Senator Johnson’s office 83 times in one day before someone answered the phone.”
GOP Rep Says Holding Town Halls Is Like Being Yelled At In A Ritual By ‘Orientals’
Trump
Trump transition team canceled plan for ethics training for staff: report
What is VOICE? Trump highlights crimes by undocumented immigrants
So that "Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement" Office thing is pretty horrifying.
You know what else is horrifying? How it's funded. pic.twitter.com/S0EpYCwLJa— Michael Duitsman (@DuitsmanMS) March 1, 2017
Exclusive: Trump administration considering separating women, children at Mexico border
Oh, hey, remember those weird Putin/Trump billboards that showed up in Montenegro a week after the election? Yeah… Montenegro: Russia involved in attempted coup
Pence
Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked. The NY Times story includes this lovely bit:
“The Star reported that Mr. Pence’s personal account was compromised over the summer by someone who sent an email to his contacts claiming that Mr. Pence and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and urgently needed money. Mr. Pence sent an email apologizing to those who had received the fake message and set up a new AOL account.”
Cabinet & Federal Appointees
https://twitter.com/delrayser/status/837130777615814657
Investigators Probed Jeff Sessions’ Contacts With Russian Officials
Did Sessions Meet With a Spymaster? Questions Swirl Around Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
Then, on July 31, 2016, about a week following his tete-a-tete with Kislyak in Cleveland, he became even more reconciliatory, telling CNN, “This whole problem with Russia is really disastrous for America, for Russia and for the world. Donald Trump is right. We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that’s putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostilities.”
The timeline on Sessions’s meetings with Kislyak, Trump’s changes to the GOP platform, and Russia’s sudden optimism on future relations with the US despite Obama’s sanctions… is really, really damning.
#Sessions met w/ Kislyak for the 2nd time on Sept. 8. I did a LexisNexis search to see what was going on at that time. Here we go… 1/
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
Kushner and Flynn Met With Russian Envoy in December, White House Says
The GOP’s protective wall around Trump is beginning to crumble “…though there is still a long, long way to go before we can expect any serious oversight.”
Jeff Sessions Recuses Himself From Russia Inquiry
Jeff Sessions Used Political Funds for Republican Convention Expenses
The Trump administration says Attorney General Jeff Sessions was acting as a then-U.S. senator when he talked to Russia’s ambassador at an event during last year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but Mr. Sessions paid for convention travel expenses out of his own political funds and he spoke about Donald Trump’s campaign at the event, according to a person at the event and campaign-finance records.
My biggest takeaway is that this scandal has all the attributes of the vast and shattering scandals in which people who at least appear to have only indirect or limited roles themselves keep getting pulled under or compromised by it.
…
Why are there so many unforced errors? Why conceal this meeting? Frankly, why lie about it? As I said, big, big scandals work like this. People who don’t even appear to be that close to the action keep getting pulled under for what seem like needless deceptions. The answer is usually that the stuff at the center of the scandal is so big that it requires concealment, even about things distant from the main action, things that it would seem much better and less damaging simply to admit.
Interior secretary Ryan Zinke rides a horse to work on his first day
Rick Perry confirmed as Energy secretary
Ben Carson Is Confirmed as HUD Secretary
Voting
Opinion analysis: Court sends majority-minority districts back for another look in Virginia gerrymandering case. That’s interesting because the court historically does not give a shit whether your gerrymandering is racially based, as long as you can provide some plausible non-racial excuse for drawing the districts that way.
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