The Democratic plan to exploit Comey controversy

Jonathan Swan
May 14

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The Democratic plan to exploit Comey controversy

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

On CNN's "State of the Union," Jake Tapper asked Chuck Schumer whether he'd refuse to vote on the nomination of a new FBI director to replace James Comey until a special prosecutor is appointed. Schumer said yes; but that's only the beginning of the pressure Democrats plan to exert.

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Here's what they'll do in the coming days, per a senior Senate aide:

Establish a litmus test for Republicans who care about the integrity of the Russia investigation: to appoint a special prosecutor.
Call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from deciding Comey's replacement, given the new FBI director will be overseeing the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the election.
Extract a full explanation from Rod Rosenstein about his role in Trump's firing of Comey. The deputy attorney general will brief senators this week and they'll have a chance to grill him.
Urge Republicans to support Democrats' calls for Comey to testify before a congressional committee.

Around the corner: Watch for Dems to use their demands on the Russia probe as leverage to justify even more aggressive obstruction of the Republicans' legislative agenda. "If they [Republicans] don't cooperate on what we view as requests that should be bipartisan and reasonable," the senior Senate aide said, "I don't think any Democrat would be in the mood to conduct business as normal."

Bonus Comey thing: the most insightful thing I've heard or read about Comey in a week of nonstop coverage is a Slate podcast interview with the former FBI boss' longtime friend Benjamin Wittes. Stressing he had no inside knowledge of his friend's plans, Wittes predicted Comey — "maybe the only completely subtext-less person in Washington" — would publicly tell his full story and probably in a congressional hearing. Wittes had these ominous words for Trump: "One of the problems that Trump created for himself in removing Jim Comey is that he dramatically increased the list of things that Jim Comey is now allowed to talk about."

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Shannon Vavra
5 hrs ago

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Big gender pay gap in Trump's White House

Andrew Harnik / AP

Female staffers in the Trump White House earn about 63 cents on every male staffer's dollar, a gap of about 37%, according to an analysis by the conservative American Enterprise Institute cited by The Washington Post.

Why it matters: That's more than double the national 17% gender pay gap. It's more than triple what the gap was under Obama.

The calculation matters, too: You may have seen reports of smaller pay gaps in the Trump White House based on mean salaries. AEI's Mark Perry says outliers make those analyses less useful.

The big reason: Most of the top roles in the Trump White House went to men.

David Nather
6 hrs ago

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Veterans' medical care program running out of money

Susan Walsh / AP

Add another health care task to the July to-do list: Congress also has to save the Veterans Affairs Choice program from running out of funds. Military Times reports that the program, which lets veterans seek private medical care if they live too far from a VA clinic or would have to wait too long for an appointment, is spending money faster than expected and could run out of funds before the end of September.

Why it matters: It will be a good test of whether Congress has the bandwidth to handle any health care issues other than the Affordable Care Act repeal bill that's struggling in the Senate. Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin told senators last month that all he needs is authority to move money around to keep the program running.

Shane Savitsky
7 hrs ago

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DOJ, Hobby Lobby settle Mesopotamian smuggling case

Hadi Mizban / AP

The Department of Justice announced this afternoon that it had settled a civil action with Hobby Lobby, in which the craft store admitted to smuggling thousands of ancient cuneiform tablets and other Mesopotamian artifacts into the United States via the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

The backstory: Hobby Lobby began assembling "a collection of historically significant items" in 2009, but against the advice of a cultural property lawyer, still chose to import thousands of valuable clay artifacts in 2010 and 2011 in shipments labeled as tile samples.

The punishment: Under its settlement with the government, Hobby Lobby has to forfeit all of the smuggled artifacts, pay a $3 million fine, and institute internal policies and training surrounding the purchase of cultural property.

Axios
8 hrs ago

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Trump arrives in Poland

Evan Vucci / AP

President Trump has landed in Poland. He'll give a speech tomorrow in Warsaw and then head to Hamburg, Germany for the G20 summit — including his meeting Friday with Vladimir Putin.

Shannon Vavra
9 hrs ago

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Hearing next week for Trump's pick to lead FBI

Andrew Harnik / AP

Christopher Wray, President Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, will be before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Wednesday for a confirmation hearing. If confirmed he would fill the void Trump created by firing James Comey.

Alayna Treene
9 hrs ago

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Judge tells Martin Shkreli to "stop talking"

Susan Walsh / AP

A U.S. district judge Wednesday ordered former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to stop talking to the media and tweeting about his trial for securities fraud, per NBC.

"All your client has to do is stop talking in the courthouse and around the perimeter of the courthouse," said U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.

Shkreli reportedly mocked the prosecutors as a "junior varsity" team, told reporters he hadn't prepared necessary documents and told a female witness she couldn't be a victim because she ended up making money. "I was shocked that there were these comments... there's a great risk jurors will be exposed," said Matsumo, suggesting such comments could taint the jury.

Flashback: Shkreli came under fire in 2015 for raising the price of an AIDS drug by more than 5,000 percent, but he's currently on trial facing eight counts of wire and securities fraud for what prosecutors have called a five-year campaign to defraud investors.

Bob Herman
9 hrs ago

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Top antitrust regulators leave FTC

Alex Brandon / AP

Tad Lipsky, the acting director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition, has retired five months after being named to his position, the agency said Wednesday. Alan Devlin, the deputy director within the same bureau, also left to work at a private law firm.

Why it matters: The Bureau of Competition oversees mergers and acquisitions and is the FTC's antitrust muscle. The turnover won't help clear the FTC's full plate. However, Lipsky told Axios he had planned to retire from private practice in May but was asked to help with the agency's transition. "An honor to have served but glad to head out now as planned," he said.

Who's next: Markus Meier is the new acting director. Meier led the health care division within the Bureau of Competition and has spearheaded efforts against "pay-for-delay" settlements, in which brand-name drug companies pay generic drug companies to keep their lower-cost medicines off the market.

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Facebook group video chat app on its way

Nam Y. Huh / AP

Facebook is reportedly getting ready to launch a standalone group video chat app that may resemble Houseparty, according to The Verge. The new app would be called Bonfire and is reportedly aimed for a fall release. Facebook said it had nothing to share at this time.

Two years ago the group video chat app, Houseparty, took off with teenagers — by November 2016 it had 1.2 million users, each spending a whopping 20 minutes a day on it. Houseparty is in the top 200 apps on Apple's U.S. App Store, marking it prime meat for Facebook's next move, which has been on the hunt to buy or mimic other products that do well among young clientele (think its buyout of Instagram or its attempts to mimic Snapchat's features).

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Why it matters: Facebook has made strategic investments in digital features, services and apps that eat at the user growth and success of competing apps or digital companies, like Snapchat, GoFundMe, Periscope, and Apple. Some have argued that the practice raises anti-trust concerns. Migrating users over to Facebook's network and keeping users engaged for longer on its platform helps Facebook amass more user data, which it uses to sell advertising revenue against.

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Alexi McCammond
10 hrs ago

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U.S. prepared to take action against North Korea

Bebeto Matthews / AP

The tensions between North Korea and the U.S. are rising, leading to a reconfiguration of how the U.S. will respond to their continued threats.

During the U.N. Security Council's emergency meeting on North Korea today, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said "actions are quickly closing off the possibility of a diplomatic solution."
The U.S. is ready to fight. The top American military commander in South Korea, General Vincent Brooks, echoed Haley's remarks in a statement today. "Self restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war. We are able to change our choice when so ordered.…It would be a grave mistake for anyone to believe anything to the contrary."
Why now: North Korea confirmed it successfully launched an ICBM and that one of the two missiles it used was previously unknown to the U.S. — both events suggest its nuclear capabilities are more advanced than the U.S. thought.

Shane Savitsky
10 hrs ago

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Paul Ryan's Democratic challenger raised $430k in 12 days

Randy Bryce for Congress / YouTube

Randy Bryce, the ironworking Democrat challenging Paul Ryan in Wisconsin's 1st district, followed up last month's splashy introduction video with some news: his fledging campaign raised more than $430,000 in just 12 days.

By the numbers: Via Twitter, Bryce said that his campaign had over 16,000 donors from all 50 states — with the average donation at around $25.

Why it matters: Today officially marks one-third of the way between the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 midterms, so if Bryce can maintain this momentum, he might give Ryan a fight in what's sure to be a closely watched race next fall.