Sam Clovis, the Trump campaign's former national co-chair, has withdrawn his nomination to the top science post in the Department of Agriculture, per the AP. The Washington Post broke the news earlier this morning that Clovis had confirmed in a letter to Sen. Debbie Stabenow that he had no formal academic credentials in agricultural science or research. Clovis also recently found himself at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation after corresponding with indicted former foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos.
Hillary Clinton is defending her campaign's role in the infamous dossier on Trump. In an interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah last night, Clinton claimed they merely paid for legal opposition research, which was initially started by a Republican donor.
Throwback: Donald Trump Jr. had also claimed that his meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer was only "opposition research," but Hillary said that her actions were different and approved by her campaign lawyer. Clinton said that Trump "had to know that people were making outreach to Russians, to the highest levels of the Kremlin, in order to help him, to hurt me, but more importantly to sow this divisiveness."
"The hackers who [tried to upend] the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton's campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press":
Why it matters: "The list provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between the hackers and the Russian government, exposing an operation that stretched back years and tried to break into the inboxes of 4,700 Gmail users across the globe — from the pope's representative in Kiev to the punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow."
Sam Clovis is a top Trump campaign surrogate emerging at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's current focus. Reports have pegged him as the "campaign supervisor" in Mueller's indictment with whom George Papadopoulos corresponded regarding meetings with suspected Russian officials — and, just last week, he was interviewed by Mueller's team and testified before a grand jury, per NBC News.
Keep an eye out: Clovis is currently nominated to become the USDA's top scientist — though he has no agricultural science or research experience — and the position requires Senate confirmation. Expect fireworks if Democrats on the Agriculture Committee got the chance to question him in a public confirmation hearing.
