Subject: Playbook PM: Manafort earned more than $60M in Ukraine
From: "Anna Palmer Jake Sherman Daniel Lippman" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2018 11:14:09 -0600
List-Id: <1376319.xt.local>

Presented by PepsiCo Foundation: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington             Jul 30, 2018 View in browser                   
 By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Akela Lacy and Eli Okun 
             
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BREAKING, via Bloomberg's David Voreacos and Andrew Harris: "MANAFORT MADE MORE THAN $60 MILLION IN UKRAINE, MUELLER SAYS": "Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman, earned more than $60 million as a political consultant in Ukraine, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller said on the eve of his criminal trial, providing the first tally of Manafort's income there.

"Prosecutors intend to prove that Manafort made that much and 'failed to report a significant percentage of it on his tax returns,' according to a filing by Mueller on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Jury selection begins Tuesday in Manafort's bank- and tax-fraud trial. ...

"Some exhibits also show how some Ukrainian oligarchs paid Manafort through foreign accounts, particularly in Cyprus. The indictment of Manafort said he made 'tens of millions' of dollars in Ukraine from 2006 to 2015, moved money from Cyprus to pay U.S. vendors to fund a lavish lifestyle and avoided paying taxes on income by disguising it as loans from offshore shell companies. It said that $75 million flowed through the accounts and that he laundered $30 million." Bloomberg

SHOCKING TO NO ONE ... SEN. RAND PAUL (@randpaul): "After meeting Judge Kavanaugh and reviewing his record, I have decided to support his nomination. No one will ever completely agree with a nominee (unless of course, you are the nominee). Each nominee however, must be judged on the totality of their views character and opinions." Full Twitter thread ... More from Elana Schor: POLITICO

RUDY GIULIANI ON CNN, from LOUIS NELSON -- "Giuliani accuses special counsel's office of acting in 'bad faith' over Trump-Mueller interview": "Rudy Giuliani told CNN that the president's legal team has waited 10 days for a response from Mueller's office on negotiations over what can be asked during the interview, saying that the president would only answer questions about allegations of collusion between his campaign and the Russian government and not about questions related allegations of obstruction of justice." POLITICO

BIG NEWS ... BOSTON GLOBE'S JAMES PINDELL: "Healey backs Pressley over Capuano in Democratic Congressional primary": "Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has weighed in on the contentious Democratic primary in the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District, backing Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley over 10-term incumbent Mike Capuano of Somerville.

"Healey announced her endorsement Monday morning in a fundraising email sent to supporters of both Healey and Pressley. Coming about a month ahead of the Sept. 4 primary this was the biggest endorsement yet for Pressley. (Though musician Questlove reaffirmed his endorsement of Pressley on social media over the weekend.)" Boston Globe

-- THIS PRIMARY is one of the most closely watched in Democratic circles. Washington operatives are worried that Capuano could be the next Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and lose his seat. Anna went up to Boston recently to talk with Pressley about her decision to run, how she's differentiating herself on the campaign and her personal story of growing up in Chicago as the only daughter of an activist mother. Subscribe to the Women Rule podcast to be the first to listen. 

Good Monday afternoon. WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:57 a.m.: "We must have Border Security, get rid of Chain, Lottery, Catch & Release Sanctuary Cities -- go to Merit based Immigration. Protect ICE and Law Enforcement and, of course, keep building, but much faster, THE WALL!"

BORDER TALES -- "ICE quest for detention sites puts Trump county on tightrope," by AP's Adam Geller in Goshen, Indiana: "Mike Yoder decided, the time had come to share unsettling news. As congregants at Silverwood Mennonite Church chatted around a Sunday potluck spread, Yoder, a county commissioner for 13 years and a dairy farmer for much longer, huddled with Pastor Jeremy Shue at the edge of the hall. 

"There was a very good chance, Yoder confided, that the nation's newest immigration detention center would soon rise from a soybean field north of town. ...[Yoder] had paid close attention when nearly two-thirds of Elkhart County's voters backed Donald Trump for president after a campaign in which he lambasted immigrants. He knew just as well that the politically mixed county seat and the largest local employers had made a place for thousands of immigrants from Mexico - a significant, but uncertain, number of them in the U.S. illegally.

"It was a balancing act in this part of northern Indiana, founded on sometimes conflicting views about business and faith, community and law. And the proposal for a 1,200-bed detention center put decision-makers on the tightrope." AP

-- "The 'Zero Tolerance' Immigration Policy Is Driving Immigrants Into The Dangerous Desert," by BuzzFeed's John Stanton in Caborca, Mexico: BuzzFeed
       
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WAR REPORT -- "Impatient Trump drives U.S. push for peace talks in Afghanistan," by NBC News' Dan De Luce, Courtney Kube and Mushtaq Yusufzai: "President Donald Trump's impatience with the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan has prompted U.S. diplomats and commanders to gamble on a bid to kick-start peace negotiations, including holding direct talks with the Taliban ... 

"The Taliban has so far welcomed the American overtures and plan to meet again soon with U.S. officials after the latest session about a week ago in Qatar ... Afghan government officials remain concerned that the U.S. could appear desperate for a peace settlement, allowing the Taliban to squeeze concessions from a superpower fatigued with a grinding war that has settled into a stalemate. ... Trump's impulsive nature, along with his openly expressed doubts about the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, has injected a sense of urgency among senior officials and military officers." NBC News

-- "Russian Jamming Poses a Growing Threat to U.S. Troops in Syria," by Foreign Policy's Lara Seligman: "Officers who have experienced the jamming-known as electronic warfare-say it's no less dangerous than conventional attacks with bombs and artillery. But they also say it's allowing U.S. troops a rare opportunity to experience Russian technology in the battlefield and figure out how to defend against it." Foreign Policy

SCOTUS WATCH -- "Kavanaugh Sided With Trump Casino in 2012 to Thwart Union Drive," by Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson: "Kavanaugh was one of three Republican-appointed judges who in 2012 voted unanimously to set aside an order by the National Labor Relations Board that would have required the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to bargain with the United Auto Workers.

"The casino has since shut down. But labor advocates point to the case ... as evidence that Kavanaugh may hobble enforcement of workplace laws and the already-embattled union movement." Bloomberg

MORE MARC SHORT FALLOUT -- "Hiring of former Trump aide at UVa prompts 2 historians to quit," by Benjamin Wermund: "William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler announced Monday they are resigning from the Miller Center, a wing of the university focused on presidential history and public policy, over its hiring of Short, Trump's former legislative affairs director.

"In their resignation letter, the historians blasted Short for not distancing himself from Trump's response to the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. ... 'By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university,' they wrote." POLITICO ... Their letter 

RUSSIA WATCH -- "How Russia Persecutes Its Dissidents Using U.S. Courts," by The Atlantic's Natasha Bertrand: "Much attention has been paid to Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the fear of a repeat in the upcoming midterms. Less examined, however, has been Russia's abuse of Interpol and the American court system to persecute the Kremlin's rivals in the United States-a problem that the Atlantic Council described in a recent report as another form of 'interference' by Russia.

"Russia's requests to Interpol to issue Red Notices-the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today-against Kremlin opponents are being met with increasing deference by the Department of Homeland Security, according to immigration attorneys and experts in transnational crime and corruption." The Atlantic

-- MARGARET CARLSON in The Daily Beast, "Brian Benczkowski Worked for a Russian Bank-Now He's Trump's Man at Justice: He wouldn't commit to recusing himself from cases involving the parent company of Alfa Bank or the Russia probe and has never prosecuted a criminal case." The Daily Beast

THE INVESTIGATIONS ... "Robert Mueller Targeted Two Lobbying Firms. One Is Thriving in Trump's D.C.," by The Daily Beast's Lachlan Markay: "Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group appeared, in that moment, to be directly embroiled in the biggest scandal to hit K Street since the days of Jack Abramoff. But in the year that has followed, the two lobbying shops have gone in remarkably different directions. 

"Mercury, dubbed 'Company A' in the federal indictment, has become one of the top foreign influence-peddlers in Trump's Washington, having signed a host of major lobbying clients this year." The Daily Beast

REMEMBERING RON DELLUMS -- S.F. CHRONICLE'S RACHEL SWAN: "Ron Dellums, a Marine turned antiwar activist and ground-breaking Democratic politician, was never one to walk away from a fight, no matter who started it.

"Dellums, who died Monday at the age of 82, made that clear during his first run for Congress in 1970, when Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew, speaking for President Richard Nixon's White House, pointedly branded the young Berkeley councilman as 'an out and out radical' who needed to be 'purged from the body politic' for his stance against the war in Vietnam and up-front fight against social ills." Full obit

VALLEY TALK -- "20 ways Democrats could crack down on Big Tech," by Axios' David McCabe: "In a policy paper obtained by Axios, Sen. Mark Warner's office laid out 20 different paths to address problems posed by Big Tech platforms - ranging from putting a price on individual users' data to funding media literacy programs." Axios

2018 WATCH -- "99 Days to Go, and the 2018 Midterm Battleground Is Not What Was Expected," by NYT's Nate Cohn: "It's not dominated by well-educated, suburban districts that voted for Hillary Clinton. Instead, the battleground is broad, and it includes a long list of working-class and rural districts that voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016." NYT

-- "This Republican could hold onto his blue-district seat even if Dems sweep," by McClatchy's Katie Glueck in Homestead, Florida: "[A]s Democrats plot a path back to the majority in the House of Representatives, their journey begins in districts like [Carlos] Curbelo's: diverse, overwhelmingly Democratic, where Hillary Clinton won by double digits even as more centrist Republican House members managed to hang on in 2016. ... 

"Now, this race is shaping up as a national test of whether environment alone is enough to boost a bevy of lesser-known Democratic candidates-or if a strong personal brand still matters on a district-by-district level." McClatchy

YA CAN'T MAKE IT UP -- "Bigfoot Porn Has Become A Major Controversy In A U.S. House Race. Seriously," by HuffPost's Dominique Mosbergen: HuffPost

TOP-ED -- REP. DAVE BRAT (R-VA.) in WSJ: "Get to Work, Senators": "This week a congressional conference committee gets to work resolving the differences between the House and Senate versions of the 2018 farm bill, which authorizes the federal food-stamp program. Among the most contested issues will be the work requirements for able-bodied, single adults passed by the House. Republicans must stand up for fiscal responsibility and the dignity that comes with work. ...

"I am deeply concerned for the poor and vulnerable. I believe in a social safety net for those who are truly in need. Unfortunately, America's current safety nets don't always live up to their promise or purpose. If we really want to combat poverty, we should evaluate how successful our social programs are at moving people off public assistance-not how many stay on. The Democrats' preferred welfare strategy encourages dependency on government. The GOP would like to see welfare recipients become self-sustaining workers." WSJ

MEDIAWATCH -- Jon Yuan has left POLITICO, where he was senior media coordinator. He's headed to Harvard Kennedy School to pursue a master's degree in public policy. ... Grace Segers started today as a reporter for CBSNews.com writing about politics. She most recently was a digital reporter at City & State New York.

TRANSITIONS -- Jessica Jacoby Lemos is joining Walmart's D.C. team as director of federal government relations. She previously was associate director for global government affairs at Kraft Heinz. ... Vedant Patel recently started as communications director for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Calif.). Patel is the former Western regional press secretary at the DNC, and former communications director to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.). ... Julia Nista will be press secretary for Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). She most recently was a general assignment reporter for the Daily Caller. 

SPOTTED: Nancy Pelosi having dinner last night at Redd restaurant in Yountville, California.

ENGAGED - Webber Steinhoff, partner at Prospect Strategic Communications and an RNC and Romney alum, proposed to Vanessa Descalzi, a K-12 communications officer at the Walton Family Foundation. He proposed at Rehoboth Beach, where Vanessa grew up vacationing. Pic

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Kyle Tharp, director of PR and product marketing at NGP VAN and the cofounder of Smoky Mountain Values PAC, on Saturday married Will Barnes, a research analyst at RosettiStarr, in a ceremony at the top of Max Patch on the North Carolina/Tennessee border. Pic 

-- Hillary DeBruin, deputy head of communications for the British Consulate General New York and a NBC News and Sard Verbinnen alum, married Connor Shope, a software developer at Jane Street Capital. The couple met in NYC the summer of 2013 when she was interning for ABC's "Good Morning America" and he was interning for the nonprofit DoSomething.org. Wedding pic by Anna Smith Photography ... Another pic ... NYT announcement

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Boyce Johnson, a row crop farmer in eastern Arkansas, on Friday welcomed Julianna Carol Johnson. Pic

-- Mike Reed, research director at the RNC, and Alice Reed welcomed Charles Dimitri Reed. Pic ... Another pic

-- Carolyn Weems, SVP at The Herald Group and alum of the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Corey Weems, engineering manager of Wright Manufacturing, welcomed Riley Susan Weems. Pic

BONUS BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Mario H. Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund. A trend he thinks deserves more attention: "The erosion of the Fourth Amendment, which is now accelerating at alarming levels with the combination of technological advances and an increased zeal and/or myopia among politicians of both parties. Fellow conservatives will regret not paying enough attention to this." Q&A
       
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