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National

Axios AM

Trump lawyers Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani tell Reuters' Karen Freifeld that they — along with fellow Trump lawyers Jane and Marty Raskin — spent at least 10 hours with the Mueller report at the Justice Department before it was public:

What they're saying: "The lawyers said they gave up their cellphones and other electronic devices before being led into a Justice Department conference room in a restricted area known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF)."

They were there Tuesday from about 4 pm until at least 9 pm, and Wednesday from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, ahead of Thursday's release.

Meanwhile, Trump's euphoria is giving way to anger and recrimination, Bloomberg's Shannon Pettypiece and Jennifer Jacobs report:

"People close to him are worried Trump has begun to stew over news coverage of the report, which has focused on Mueller’s documentation of the president's efforts to interfere in the investigation and deceive the public."

Former White House counsel Don McGahn, a star witness in the report, in a statement from his lawyer, William Burck:

"It's a mystery why Rudy Giuliani feels the need to re-litigate incidents the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General have concluded were not obstruction. But they are accurately described in the report."

"Don, nonetheless, appreciates that the President gave him the opportunity to serve as White House Counsel and assist him with his signature accomplishments."

Behind the scenes of the Mueller report reveal

Trump's lawyers spent at least 10 hours with the Mueller report at the Justice Department before it was public.

Politics

Mueller report

Finish Line

Axios Finish Line

Imagine Sen. Mitt Romney, instead of Bill Barr, was attorney general. This is what Romney's summary of the Mueller report might have said, based on his statement yesterday:

I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President. 

I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia — including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine.

Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders.

Barr is — and his selection, performance and public spin have turned out to be of inestimable value to the president in weathering Mueller's findings.

What's new: Barr’s spinmeistery press conference broke with DoJ practice by coming before any of the reporters there had seen the report, and seemed only to function as an effort to sell the report as good news for the president. 

Why it matters: Whether out of his own instincts or devotion to his audience of one, Barr dampened response to the Mueller report by preemptively describing it in terms that invited Trump to claim "Total EXONERATION."

Even Barr's summary letter made it clear that the report was mixed, at best.

But Trump and supporters filled the 25-day vacuum from letter to report with jubilant claims of vindication.

Be smart: It's working. Most Democrats, including Speaker Pelosi, are opposed to impeachment hearings. 

Mueller report shows Trump’s biggest power play

Attorney General William Barr has turned out to be of inestimable value to the president in weathering Mueller's findings.

Photojournalists capture four pages of the Mueller report on the witness table in the House Intelligence Committee hearing room on Thursday. (Cliff Owen/AP)

Donald Trump

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Former White House Counsel Don McGahn, one of the standout witnesses in the Mueller report, has responded to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's attacks on his credibility and his claims that McGahn's account "can't be taken at face value." 

"It's a mystery why Rudy Giuliani feels the need to re-litigate incidents the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General have concluded were not obstruction. But they are accurately described in the report. Don, nonetheless, appreciates that the President gave him the opportunity to serve as White House Counsel and assist him with his signature accomplishments."

Statement from Don McGahn's legal counsel, obtained by NBC's Kelly O'Donnell

Why it matters: Refusals from McGahn — and other top White House staffers — to obey  presidential directives are part of the reason why Trump ultimately avoided obstruction of justice charges in Mueller's investigation.

According to details McGahn and others provided to Mueller's team, Trump instructed McGahn to contact Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller fired. McGahn did not carry out Trump's order.

Go deeper: 7 takeaways from the Mueller report

Don McGahn responds to accusations against his credibility

Refusals from McGahn to obey presidential directives are part of the reason why Trump avoided obstruction charges in Mueller's investigation.

Don McGahn. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Over the past few years, big-name venture capitalists and flashy PR campaigns have boasted about replicating the Silicon Valley tech boom in second-tier cities around the country. But so far there is no stampede to the hinterland. 

The big picture: Existing U.S. tech hubs are not only holding on to their imprimatur as primary magnets of top tech talent, but increasing it, persuading the best candidates to take jobs and stay put. Second-tier cities remain just that. 

What's happening: A small number of U.S. cities — Boston, Austin, and of course the soup of cities making up Silicon Valley — still host almost all the Big Tech headquarters, while parceling out mere morsels of satellite offices or data centers elsewhere, away from the action.

New data from Indeed, the jobs site, shows that Silicon Valley's share of the nation's tech jobs has actually increased by 10% between 2017 and 2018. Austin's share grew by 9%.

"It's the revenge of geography. Geography really does matter," says Eric Weiner, author of "The Geography of Genius."

"The reason that these wannabe Silicon Valleys have not evolved past the wannabe stage is that you can't manufacture a genius cluster or a hub of creativity from scratch."

How they are doing it: "Not only do the Bay Area, Seattle, and Austin have a bigger concentration of tech jobs, but the tech jobs they have tend to be more cutting-edge and pay more," says Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.

The most common job postings in tech hubs tend to be in robotics or deep learning, while the bulk of openings in second-tier cities are for roles in quality assurance or hardware engineering, Kolko's research found.

Time moves on: Though he sees Silicon Valley as a weighty and immovable object at the moment, Weiner says that, throughout history, creative hubs like Athens and Florence have led the world — before withering away after about a century.

If that is a measuring stick, Silicon Valley has another few decades to go, but may be waning around mid century.

"These huge, growing companies like Google and Uber, with their enormous market caps and the salaries they're giving to get people to stay with them, could actually hurt innovation," Mark Kvamme, a venture capitalist at Drive Capital in Columbus, Ohio, tells me. "Why go to a startup when Google is paying you $500,000?"

But venture capitalists and startup CEOs in middle America attempt to paint a glass half-full picture of the data. 

Despite increasing their share, the tech hotspots still have just 32% of the country's tech jobs. Silicon Valley has just under 10%. The rest are scattered around the other cities and states.

"I think satellites matter a lot," says Bryce Roberts, a VC in Salt Lake City. "There’s a synergy between satellite offices and endemic startup creation in second- and third-tier cities that I think is hard to spot sitting inside a first-tier market."

"Silicon Valley is going to be important because all the major tech companies are already there,  and it's got 50% of the venture capital," says Kvamme. "But you've got fast-growing, innovative companies all across the U.S."

What to watch: Some major companies — like Salesforce in Indianapolis and Netflix in Albuquerque — have built massive offices outside of the tech hubs. But so far it hasn't been easy getting workers to move there. 

One reason is the lack of critical mass — there is something unsettling about relying on the only game in town.

And, highly paid workers are not necessarily sold on the argument that a second-tier city has a cheaper cost of living, Weiner says.

The bottom line: When smaller places like Austin succeed, it's because they've managed to put together some magic themselves. "They're a tech hub because they're cool; they're not cool because they're a tech hub," says Weiner. "The coolness has to come first, and it has to be organic."

Go deeper: The future of innovation outside Silicon Valley

The country's genius hubs are vacuuming up tech talent

Animated illustration of a metal windmill with a loading circle as its blades

Future

Jobs

Technology

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Amazon's decision to all but shut down operations in China is another step in a reorganization of the world into two distinct, digitally driven universes.

What's happening: In an announcement yesterday, Amazon said it will give up the local Chinese market, making its online store there solely a conduit for foreign goods.

Chinese analysts say the move follows tin-eared marketing and enormous gaffes by Amazon going back years, report the FT's Shannon Bond, Yuan Yang and Nian Liu.

But it also comes as the U.S., China and Russia are moving to cordon off cyberspace into their own zones of commercial, military and geopolitical influence.

As we have reported, this "rebordering," as some experts call it, is visible in the rollout of 5G internet, Russia's stated aim of cutting itself off from the global internet — and the growth of e-commerce.

"We are seeing rebordering in the behavior of both private and public actors," said Janice Gross Stein, a professor at the University of Toronto.

Amazon, China and 'rebordering'

Amazon will give up the local Chinese market.

A truck bearing the Amazon logo and Chinese characters

China

World

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is calling for the impeachment of President Trump 1 day after the Mueller report was released.

Details: This is the furthest a 2020 presidential hopeful has gone in response to the report. Last Sunday, Warren said Trump "may not even be a free person," by the 2020 elections, reports Politico. This is also Warren's first bout with Trump since she announced her bid for the presidency.

What others are saying: House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) told CNN he may move forward with the articles of impeachment proposed by Warren, but "I want to make sure that I’ve got all my facts in a row." Cummings said he wants to wait for Attorney General William Barr and Special Counsel Robert Muller to openly discuss the report first. 

2020 presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told reporters on Friday it is too soon to talk about impeachment hearings. He said they don't even have a full version of the report and haven’t had a chance to ask Mueller any questions.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also voiced support for the impeachment of Trump following the highly anticipated reveal of the Mueller report.

Go deeper: Trump reacts to Mueller report release: "I chose not to" end investigation

Elizabeth Warren calls for Trump's impeachment

Warren is the first 2020 Democratic candidate to call for impeachment.

Axios AI+

With minimal national oversight or unified data to rely on, police accountability groups are trying to create their own data systems to document use of force by law enforcement.

Why it matters: Police forces increasingly tap into location data, sensors and facial recognition to do their jobs. Now the groups who police the police are increasingly trying to use technology to empower citizens on the other side of the interaction.

Where it stands: A pair of talks at this week's TED conference highlighted two nonprofit efforts being made to improve accountability.

Raheem is an Oakland, California-based mobile platform that allows people to report their interactions with the police, good and bad, using a cellphone.

The Center for Policing Equity, based in New York, aims to help law enforcement agencies root out racism by using data to show the inequities in action.

"This country is increasingly becoming monitored by police. I’m absolutely interested in using this technology to oversee the people who surveil us."

The big picture: Communities of color have come under particular police scrutiny both historically and as the new generation of surveillance technology has emerged.

"I have not heard a good reason as to why we cannot use that same tech for the benefit and the safety of community members," Anderson said.

Both Raheem and the Center for Policing Equity are working with the agencies they are monitoring and – in Raheem's case — with oversight boards and other entities, like public defenders.

How it works: By offering hard data, these groups shift the conversation from accusations to specific behaviors.

"Your character just isn’t on the table," said Center for Policing Equity director Phillip Atiba Goff. "That allows for conversation[s] that simply aren't possible any other way."

Policing Equity, which has so far helped more than two dozen cities better understand what leads to arrests and use of force in their communities, was one of eight organizations that are splitting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding raised as part of TED's Audacious Project.

Anderson, a TED fellow, started Raheem and named the project (which is Arabic for second chance) after his partner, who died from police violence in Oklahoma City in 2007.

Raheem just launched in Oakland after a pilot program in San Francisco that accumulated twice as much data on police interactions in three months as the city normally collects in a year.

What's next: Raheem is looking to expand its use of technology to better inform and protect people in real time during their interactions with police, in addition to documenting what happens. 

The Center for Policing Equity is now aiming to expand its work to the state level. Goff said that 21 states collect at least some data on police interactions, mostly traffic stops.

Yes, but: Nonprofits in this realm face an uphill battle. Big data is a lot easier to deploy on behalf of big companies and big governments than relatively small communities or individual citizens.

Go deeper: FBI says it has first national database of "police-involved shootings"

Using tech to police the police

These groups want to use hard data to shift the conversation from accusations to specific behaviors.

Axios

Saturday's top stories

Behind the scenes of the Mueller report reveal

Mueller report shows Trump’s biggest power play

Don McGahn responds to accusations against his credibility

The country's genius hubs are vacuuming up tech talent

Amazon, China and 'rebordering'

Elizabeth Warren calls for Trump's impeachment

Using tech to police the police

Jobless claims are near a 50-year low and it's no fluke

The $3.4-billion-as-soon-as-it's-legal marijuana merger

The other Don: McGahn is one of the Mueller report's biggest stars

Trump's obstruction salvation: Disobedient staff

An AI frenzy at universities

Uber raises $1 billion for its self-driving unit