One day after tweeting that he had "not spoken to Roger [Stone] in a long time," President Trump called Stone after watching him on various news shows in the aftermath of the firing of FBI Director James Comey, per The New Yorker.
The reason for Trump's call: Simply to tell Stone that he did a good job on television — not surprising, as Trump is known to value loyalty above all else.
But a wrinkle: Because Stone is a witness at the center of the federal government's Russia investigation, this could compound potential obstruction of justice concerns for Trump. One of Obama's White House ethics lawyers told The New Yorker: "Trump just added another item to the investigators' checklist."
The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas today — four were related to its ongoing Russia investigation and three were linked to the potential "unmasking" of Trump associates in classified reports collected during the Obama administration, according to the Wall St Journal.
The Russia targets: Ousted national security advisor Michael Flynn and his consulting group, Flynn Intel Group, LLC; plus, Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen and his law firm, Michael D. Cohen & Associates PC.
The unmasking targets: The NSA, FBI, and CIA all got subpoenaed relating to unmasking requests made by three Obama-era officials: national security advisor Susan Rice, CIA Director John Brennan, and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power.
Why it matters: The split reflects the diverging priorities of the Democrats, focused on links between Trump associates and Russia, and the Republicans, many of whom claim the real issue is leaking or, in this case, unmasking.
43% of voters want the impeachment process for President Trump to begin, according to the latest poll by Morning Consult and Politico. That's a 5% increase from last week, despite a seemingly successful foreign trip for Trump.
But... Less than half of those hoping for impeachment actually believe Trump has committed a legally impeachable offense. And there are more voters (45%) who don't want Congress to impeach Trump.
Yesterday, comedian Kathy Griffin posted photos from an anti-Trump photoshoot with photographer Tyler Shields in which she holds up a bloody head resembling Donald Trump. There was outraged feedback: Chelsea Clinton called the photo "vile and wrong" and the secret service tweeted, "threats made against @SecretService protectees receive the highest priority of all of our investigations." Griffin apologized on social media, admitting she had "gone too far."
As a long-expected shake-up begins in the West Wing, President Trump has been asking key Republicans for their opinions about two possible replacements as White House chief of staff: Gary Cohn, a moderate voice who's his current economic adviser; and David Urban, a Republican lobbyist now on the outside.
In true reality-TV style, the conversations are setting up a bake-off between the two men — at least in the minds of those whose opinions Trump is soliciting (and, of course, some of them yap). That's feeding uncertainty for his current chief, Reince Priebus, and everyone who works for him.
Trump took to Twitter this morning, calling the suspicion of Russian collusion with his campaign team "Fake News" again.
Meanwhile: A special counsel has been appointed to investigate the matter, there are House and Senate probes, the FBI has been investigating and several intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled in the U.S. election.
