The Porter story is dominating the news for a second week. The FBI now says they notified the white House with three reports about his domestic abuse allegations in their recommendations he not receive a security clearance, March, July and November. Sarah Sanders had to change her story that the FBI’s review of Porter was still underway last week. She said she was not sure if top White House officials like McGahn or Kelly knew about the allegations last summer.
Politico reports that the White House quietly stopped issuing interim security clearances to new hires last fall, but let current ones stand.
NBC reports that 130 White House staff are on interim security clearances, including 47 who report directly to Trump.
Trump’s long time personal lawyer Michael Cohen admitted this week that he paid the porn actress Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) out of his own pocket. There are questions over whether he broke any campaign finance or lawyer ethics rules in doing so.
Farrow of the New Yorker has a bodice ripper of a report about affairs Trump has had and covered up in the years leading up to his election.
John Kelly has issued an order that White House officials who have had an interim security clearance since July or earlier can no longer receive classified information. It is unclear what this will mean for Kushner, who can’t do his job without such access and is unlikely to ever receive security clearance.
Politico reports this week that the Kushner debt has increased significantly since they started work at the White House: “The changes take Kushner and Trump’s reported debts to a range of approximately $31 million to $155 million from the previously reported range of between about $19 million and $98 million.”
On Thursday, the Senate failed to pass a bill protecting DREAMers from deportation. Trump threatened to veto a bipartisan measure which failed to gain 60 votes, and his own immigration proposal failed to pass.
In Russia News:
On Tuesday the US intelligence chiefs, all appointed by Trump, told the Senate that the Russians were already gearing up to interfere in the 2018 elections. So far there is no evidence of direct voter rolls tampering. The operation is mostly a social media campaign to stoke Americans’ social divisions. The Trump Administration has so far not commented on Russia’s plans to interfere in the 2018 elections.
Rick Gates is moving closer to a plea deal, and Steve Bannon has had about 20 hours of interviews with Mueller’s team.
On Friday afternoon, Mueller and Rosenstein issued indictments of 16 Russian nationals for their role in interference with the 2016 election.
This report by the Times explains how the operation was intended to exploit divisions among Americans and sow distrust in the electoral process, namely by suppressing minority turnout, boosting support for Trump as well as third party candidates like Stein and Sanders. It reveals that the operation began in April 2014 less than one month after Russia annexed Crimea.
Here is a good analysis of how Trump responded. He thinks it vindicates him because the indictment says Americans who worked with the indicted Russians were “unwitting.” But it remains to be seen how Trump’s repeated assertions that Russia hacking is a hoax, and that he believes Putin when Putin denies involvement, will hold up after this.
Here is the 37 page indictment.
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Trump’s job approval: 41.4%