Josh Marshall/TPM:
The Rush to Testify is Bad News for the White House
Take it as a given that everyone here will act in their own interests. If the President’s position was strong and he had the ability to protect or threaten these secondary players they’d almost certainly be following his lead. But they’re not. They’re moving quickly, if not to make deals with the Congress then at least to share what they know and hand over documents in their possession. In other words, they’re protecting themselves. We don’t know for certain Sondland is doing this yet. But if he weren’t it would be folly to submit to a deposition without a government lawyer present and without trying to negotiate protective ground rules.
One of the things we learned over the last nine months is that a posture of total defiance can be quite effective. If no one talks or produces any records it’s almost impossible for an investigation to get traction or build momentum. By cooperating they are significantly undermining the administration’s strategy and creating incentives and pressures for others to come forward as well. For a White House where law means little and loyalty means everything that is total betrayal. But that does not appear to be stopping them.
Again, everyone will act in their own interests. The White House is telegraphing a cavalier defiance meant to tell everyone they still hold all the cards. But these underlings’ actions speak louder than words. They know much more than we do and they have much more on the line. So we should listen closely to what their actions are telling us.
Watching the smug looks from Trump enablers drop into the garbage gonna be a thing. But that's not the point (we are not them.) The point is doing the right thing (they will not understand that, it's incomprehensible to them).
WaPo:
‘Out on a limb’: Inside the Republican reckoning over Trump’s possible impeachment
A torrent of impeachment developments has triggered a reckoning in the Republican Party, paralyzing many of its officeholders as they weigh their political futures, legacies and, ultimately, their allegiance to a president who has held them captive.
President Trump’s moves to pressure a foreign power to target a domestic political rival has driven his party into a bunker, with lawmakers bracing for an extended battle led by a general whose orders are often confusing and contradictory.
Should the House impeach Trump, his trial would be in the Senate, where the Republican majority would decide his fate. While GOP senators have engaged in hushed conversations about constitutional and moral considerations, their calculations at this point are almost entirely political.
Even as polling shows an uptick in support nationally for Trump’s impeachment, his command over the Republican base is uncontested, representing a stark warning to any official who dares to cross him…
“It feels like we’ve been constantly moving the line,” said Tom Rath, a GOP fixture in New Hampshire. “We say, ‘Don’t cross this line.’ Okay, you crossed it. So, ‘Don’t cross this line.’ We’re finally at a point where patience is exhausted, reason is exhausted and, quite frankly, the voters are exhausted.”
A Republican strategist who is close with several senators and spoke on the condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment called the situation “a disaster.” This consultant has been advising clients to “say as little as possible” about impeachment developments to buy time.
WaPo:
Treasury inspector general to review handling of Trump’s tax returns
The Treasury Department’s acting inspector general has opened a review into whether the Trump administration acted improperly during its ongoing fight with House Democrats over releasing President Trump’s tax returns.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to comply with a request from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) for six years of the president’s business and financial returns. Democrats have said a 1924 law explicitly gives them the authority to request the documents, but Mnuchin has denied the request, and now the matter is pending in federal court.
A focus of the fight is the mandatory audit program that the Internal Revenue Service conducts on the president’s and vice president’s tax returns.
Tim Miller/Bulwark:
Being Donald Trump: Inside the World Where Conspiracies Are Reality
What reality looks like from inside Trump World.
The case being presented by President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Sean Hannity is inextricably intertwined with the investigation into the 2016 election. They presuppose the possibility that everything we’ve been told publicly about interference in the election is a lie. The public story, of course, has been that (1) Russians hacked U.S. political organizations in order to benefit Trump; (2) There was a gaggle of unsavory characters either intertwined in the plot or attempting to be; and (3) people close to Trump knew this was happening, welcomed it, and frequently lied about their actions.
So forget about all that.
Instead, consider the possibility that the U.S. intelligence community—desperate to prevent Trump from ascending to the presidency—worked with the Clinton campaign, Democratic National Committee insiders, intelligence agents in multiple foreign countries, and Ukrainian oligarchs in order to fabricate evidence of Russian interference and cover-up what was an inside job all along. And that they used former British spy (and dossier author) Christopher Steele as their vehicle.
That’s what the president and his team seem to believe.
WaPo:
Holding Ukraine hostage: How the president and his allies, chasing 2020 ammunition, fanned a political storm
By mid-May, the U.S. relationship with Ukraine was unraveling: The U.S. ambassador had been recalled home for no apparent reason, the country’s new president was anxious about U.S. support, and President Trump’s personal lawyer was hawking Kiev conspiracy theories.
Amid this turbulence, an unexpected figure stepped forward to assert that he was now in charge of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, had no apparent standing to seize this critical portfolio, nor any apparent qualifications as a diplomat beyond the $1 million he’d given to Trump’s inauguration.
But when some in the White House and State Department sought to block his power grab, current and former U.S. officials said, he rebuffed their demands to know who had granted him such authority with two words:
The president.
NY Times on the Quiet Conscience caucus:
These Republicans May Not Endorse an Impeachment Inquiry. But They Aren’t Saying No.
Republicans like Representative Mark Amodei of Nevada balancing the risk of President Trump’s wrath and the knowledge that history will hold them accountable for their actions.
and the Spineless Sellout caucus:
The ‘Never Trump’ Coalition That Decided Eh, Nevermind, He’s Fine
They signed open letters, dedicated a special magazine issue to criticism of him and swore he would tear at the fabric of this nation. Now they have become the president’s strongest defenders.
TIME:
How Mike Pompeo Is Taking Center Stage In Trump’s Impeachment Drama
As the impeachment inquiry into the alleged politicization of U.S. foreign policy intensifies, many civil servants and Foreign Service officers, some of them in senior roles, are considering leaving the government, according to to multiple officials who spoke to TIME. “I joined the Foreign Service to work for the United States, not for whoever is president, and now politics has become policy,” one State Department official told TIME.
Richard Armitage, who served as deputy Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, said the Ukraine revelations have just fueled the frustration and anger among the U.S. diplomatic corps. The feeling is that Pompeo is allowing State to be used to service Trump's political agenda.
“The officials at the State Department, starting with the Secretary of State, are there to serve only one purpose,” he told TIME. “And that is the care and feeding of Donald J. Trump.”
Meanwhile at home:
And abroad: