Subject: FW: Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing for Wednesday, August 22, 2018
From: "Kathy Chung" <[email-masked]>
To: "Ashley Blazer Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Jill Tracy Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Jimmy Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Valerie Biden Owens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 09:55:54 -0400

Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing

*From:* Bulletin Intelligence <[email-masked]>
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 22, 2018 7:52 AM
*To:* [email-masked]
*Subject:* Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing for
Wednesday, August 22, 2018

*Click to access
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=000-def&t=c>
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[image: Image removed by sender. Office of Vice President Biden
Intelligence Briefing]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=001-1d3&t=c>

*To: Vice President Joe Biden*

*Wednesday, August 22, 2018 8:00 AM EDT*
Today's Table of Contents

*Biden in the News <#SECTION_1>*

• Poll: Biden Leads Trump 43%-31% In Hypothetical 2020 Matchup; 26%
Undecided. <#S1>

• Biden Backs Nessel’s Bid For Michigan Attorney General. <#S2>

• CURE Media Group Welcomes Biden Cancer Initiative To Strategic Alliance
Program. <#S3>

*Leading the News <#SECTION_2>*

• Trump Defends Manafort After Conviction On Tax Fraud, But Remains Silent
On Cohen. <#S4>

*Foreign Policy <#SECTION_3>*

• US Imposes Additional Sanctions On Russia For North Korea Transactions.
<#S5>

• IAEA: No Sign North Korea Has Halted Nuclear Weapons Activities. <#S6>

• Facebook Accuses Iran, Russia Of Disinformation Campaign. <#S7>

• Hunt Defends UK’s Support For Iran Nuclear Deal. <#S8>

• Rockets Hit Targets Near Afghan Presidential Palace, US Embassy, NATO
Compound. <#S9>

• Turkish Lira Weakens After Trump Rules Out Concessions. <#S10>

• Businesses, Trade Groups Urge Administration To Reconsider China Tariffs.
<#S11>

*Domestic Policy <#SECTION_4>*

• Trump Denies Report He Discussed Restricting Obama’s Intelligence
Briefings. <#S12>

• EPA Proposes To Scale Back Clean Power Plan. <#S13>

• Undocumented Immigrant Arrested In Death Of Iowa College Student. <#S14>

• Collins: Kavanaugh Considers Roe v Wade “Settled Law.” <#S15>

• McCaskill Questions CMS’ Verma About ACA Pre-Existing Conditions Suit.
<#S16>

• WPost A1: White Nationalist Publisher Attended Birthday Party In Kudlow’s
Home. <#S17>

• CA50 Rep. Hunter, Wife Indicted For Campaign Finance Violations. <#S18>

• Trump Stumps For Manchin Challenger Morrisey In West Virginia. <#S19>

*Cancer Research <#SECTION_5>*

• USPSTF Releases Updated Guidelines On Cervical Cancer Screening. <#S20>

• Experimental Drug Vistusertib Can Shrink Tumors In Ovarian Cancer
Patients. <#S21>

*Editorials/Op-Eds <#SECTION_6>*

• New York Times. <#S22>

• Washington Post. <#S23>
Biden in the News
Poll: Biden Leads Trump 43%-31% In Hypothetical 2020 Matchup; 26% Undecided.

Morning Consult
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=002-a2a&t=c>
(8/22, Yokley) reports, “Pluralities of voters said they would choose
former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over
President Donald Trump in a hypothetical presidential election,” in a
Morning Consult/Politico poll of 1,974 voters nationwide, taken Aug. 16-18.
The poll found Biden leading Trump 43%-31%, with 26% undecided. In a
Morning Consult/Politico poll taken “in late July,” Biden led Trump
44%-37%, with 19% undecided. In the new poll, Sanders leads Trump 44%-32%,
with 24% undecided. In other hypothetical 2020 matchups, the only other
Democrat tested in the new poll who led Trump was Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA), who bested the President 34%-30%, with 36% undecided.

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=003-2e2&t=c>
(8/22, Shepard) reports that the new “the poll shows that a plurality – or,
in some cases, a majority – of voters are undecided in Trump matchups
against the other eight Democrats tested: Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.),
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.); New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo; Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.); former
Attorney General Eric Holder and Michael Avenatti,” the lawyer for Stormy
Daniels. Morning Consult managing director Tyler Sinclair is quoted as
saying, “Democrats are showing an enthusiasm gap in likely 2020 candidates,
with Sanders and Biden outpacing other potential nominees. Our polling
shows 74 [percent] and 73 percent of Democrats say they would vote for
Sanders and Biden over Trump, respectively. This exceeds Warren [60
percent], Booker [49 percent], and Harris [47 percent].”

        *Arkansas Columnist Suggests Biden May Be Best Democrat To Face
Trump In 2020. *Writing for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=004-d78&t=c>
(8/22), columnist John Brummett, in a somewhat unflattering piece, suggests
that former Vice President Joe Biden may be the best Democrat to take on
President Trump in 2020. Brummett says Biden “is in some ways the worst
conceivable Democratic challenger to Trump,” citing his two failed White
House runs and age. However, Brummett argues that “all Democrats have to do
to win is tap the Trump resistance, which any Democrat could, and then pick
up a smattering of white working-class votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and
Michigan that Hillary Clinton alienated and whose language Joe happens to
speak.” Brummett adds that Biden’s “problem always has been that he speaks
too much, and indelicately. ... Between Trump’s tweets and Joe’s gaffes,
2020 could be a rare political adventure. Their debates would be
near-octogenarian cage fights.”
Biden Backs Nessel’s Bid For Michigan Attorney General.

MLive (MI)
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=005-bbb&t=c>
(8/21, Gibbons) reports that former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday
endorsed Dana Nessel’s (D-MI) bid for state attorney general. Biden, in a
statement released by the campaign, “said he supports Nessel because ‘she
is a problem solver with the drive and the experience that Michigan needs
in an Attorney General.” MLive says that Nessel “is the presumptive
Democratic nominee for attorney general after winning the party endorsement
over Pat Miles at an April convention.” The GOP will select its nominee at
a “nominating convention [to] take place in Lansing Saturday, Aug. 25.”
CURE Media Group Welcomes Biden Cancer Initiative To Strategic Alliance
Program.

In a press release
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=006-630&t=c>,
CURE Media Group, which described itself as “the nation’s leading digital
and print media enterprise dedicated to patients and survivors of cancer,”
said it “welcomes The Biden Cancer Initiative to the Strategic Alliance
Partnership (SAP) program. The partners will collaborate to promote patient
education and administration policies for cancer prevention, detection,
diagnosis, research and care approaches.” The release says that former Vice
President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, on Sept. 21 will be
“hosting a national Biden Cancer Community Summit in Washington, D.C. The
summit will focus on the patient’s journey from prevention through a cancer
diagnosis, treatment through survivorship, and determine what we must do to
accelerate progress.”
Leading the News
Trump Defends Manafort After Conviction On Tax Fraud, But Remains Silent On
Cohen.

Ahead of a campaign rally in Charleston, West Virginia for GOP Senate
nominee and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Tuesday, President
Trump expressed sympathy for Paul Manafort after a federal jury found his
former campaign chairman guilty on eight counts, but insisted the outcome
of the trial “doesn’t involve me.” Trump’s comments and the verdict
generated saturation levels of coverage, as does Trump’s former attorney
Michael Cohen’s decision to plead guilty to violating campaign finance laws
at the direction of then-candidate Trump in 2013. All of the network
newscasts led with the story and devoted nearly 27 minutes of combined
coverage to the latest developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s
investigation.

        Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=007-4eb&t=c>
(8/21, Pollak) reports Trump “told reporters on the ground in Charleston,
West Virginia, on Tuesday evening that the convictions of” Manafort and
Cohen “had nothing to do with ‘Russian collusion,’” though another Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=008-0a3&t=c>
(8/21, Spiering) article reports Trump said Manafort is a “good man” and
Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=009-f1e&t=c>
(8/21, Oprysko) reports Trump “said that he felt “very badly”
for...Manafort.” The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00a-b6b&t=c>
(8/21, Enjeti) reports Trump continued, “[Manafort] worked for Bob Dole, he
worked for Ronald at Reagan. He worked for many people. This is the way it
ends up. It was not the original mission, believe me. It was something very
much different. It has nothing to do with Russian collusion. They continue
the witch hunts.” Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00b-d2d&t=c>
(8/21, Sink, Olorunnipa) reports that he additionally “called the
conviction of...Manafort ‘a very sad thing’ and again
disparaged...Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016
election as” a “witch hunt and a disgrace.” The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00c-47f&t=c>
(8/21, Fabian) reports Trump also said the conviction of Manafort “has
nothing to do with Russian collusion” while Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00d-965&t=c>
(8/21, Oliphant) and the Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00e-781&t=c>
(8/21, Boyer) both highlight that he insisted the verdict “does not involve
me.”

        Meanwhile, the AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=00f-1eb&t=c>
(8/21, Miller, Lemire, Superville) reports Trump “largely ignored his
former personal attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty pleas to felonies,
including campaign finance violations that Cohen stated he carried out in
coordination with Trump,” although the President “did say he felt ‘badly
for both’ men.” The lead CBS Evening News[image: Image removed by sender.
Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=010-97e&t=c>
(8/21, lead story, 0:55, Glor) segment broadcast Trump’s denunciation of
the Special Counsel’s investigation, but Jeff Glor emphasized Cohen and
Manafort are “now both convicted felons.” In a front-page article, the
Washington
Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=011-a02&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Barrett) reports Cohen’s plea “could spark calls for impeachment
hearings – but probably will not have any legal consequences for the
president while he is in office, according to legal analysts.” The Post
adds “such an explosive assertion against anyone but the president would
suggest that a criminal case could be in the offing, but under
long-standing legal interpretations by the Justice Department, the
president cannot be charged with a crime.”

        In another front-page article, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=012-403&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Rucker) reports “the rapid developments in federal court on
Tuesday amounted to a breathtaking political nightmare for Trump, who is
already besieged by Mueller’s wide-ranging federal investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and his possible obstruction of
justice.” The Post adds “the ramifications could extend to this fall’s
midterms and beyond, whether as a cudgel for Democrats who oppose him or as
a rallying cry for Republicans eager to stave off congressional
investigations.”

        Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=013-149&t=c>
(8/21, York) chief political correspondent Byron York agrees with Trump’s
assessment that the Manafort verdict is meaningless when it comes to “the
question of whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to fix the
2016 election.” York emphasizes that “Mueller did not allege any links
and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals
associated with the Trump campaign, and none were revealed at the trial.”
He adds that “the bottom line is, more than two years into the Trump-Russia
investigation (first by the FBI, and since May 2017 by Mueller),
investigators have not alleged, much less proved, the existence of a
Trump-Russia 2016 election conspiracy.”

        However, a New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=014-202&t=c>
(8/21) editorial highlights that “from the start of the Russia
investigation, President Trump has been working to discredit the work and
the integrity of the special counsel, Robert Mueller; praising men who are
blatant grifters, cons and crooks; insisting that he’s personally done
nothing wrong; and reminding us that he hires only the best people.” The
Times adds Tuesday was “an astonishing split-screen moment involving two of
those people.” According to the Times, “Only a complete fantasist – that
is, only President Trump and his cult – could continue to claim that this
investigation of foreign subversion of an American election, which has
already yielded dozens of other indictments and several guilty pleas, is a
‘hoax’ or ‘scam’ or ‘rigged witch hunt.’”

        The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=015-167&t=c>
(8/21) editorializes that despite his best efforts to downplay the
importance of Manafort’s conviction or Cohen’s plea deal, “Trump cannot
pretend these crimes did not occur or that they have nothing to do with
him. Neither can Congress.” The Post calls on Congress to “open
investigations into Mr. Trump’s role in the crime Mr. Cohen has admitted
to. It is far too soon to say where such inquiries would lead. But
legislators cannot in good conscience ignore an alleged co-conspirator in
the White House.”

        *Jury Finds Manafort Guilty Of Tax Fraud. *NBC News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=016-c97&t=c>
(8/21) reports on its website that Manafort “was convicted on five counts
of tax fraud, one count of failing to file reports of foreign bank and
financial accounts and two counts of bank fraud. A mistrial was declared in
three counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial
accounts, and seven counts of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy.”
According to NBC, Manafort “faces an estimated seven to nine years in
prison,” though a front-page Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=017-cb8&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Viswanatha, Gurman, Bykowicz) article says that he could receive
up to 80 years in prison and USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=018-c18&t=c>
(8/21, Johnson) says District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III did not set a
sentencing date. On the CBS Evening News[image: Image removed by sender.
Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=019-59e&t=c>
(8/21, story 3, 1:50, Glor), Paula Reid reported the prosecutors “will
return at the end of the month to announce whether they will retry Manafort
on those 10 counts where the jury couldn’t reach a consensus.” On ABC World
News Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01a-51d&t=c>
(8/21, story 3, 3:40, Muir), Pierre Thomas reported Manafort “faces another
trial in Washington, D.C., beginning September 17th. … And he’s now in jail
on allegations of witness tampering in the upcoming trial.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01b-dcf&t=c>
(8/21, Barakat, Day, Tucker) says “the outcome almost certainly guarantees
years of prison for Manafort and established the ability of special counsel
Robert Mueller’s team to persuade a jury of average citizens despite months
of partisan attacks – including from Trump – on the investigation’s
integrity.” The AP adds that the verdict “raised immediate questions of
whether the president would seek to pardon Manafort, the lone American
charged by Mueller to opt for trial instead of cooperate.” Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01c-5ad&t=c>
(8/21, Voreacos, Harris, Weinberg, Flatley) says Manafort “faces a lengthy
prison term for each count, raising the question of whether Trump might
take the politically fraught step of pardoning his former aide or commuting
his sentence.” Bloomberg adds, “Without Trump’s intervention, Manafort’s
only hope for leniency would be to cooperate with Mueller’s probe.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01d-fd0&t=c>
(8/21, Freifeld, Layne, Gibson) reports “Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing,
told reporters afterward that his client was disappointed in the verdict
and was evaluating his options.”

        USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01e-5d5&t=c>
(8/21) editorializes that the verdict against Manafort “builds credibility”
for Mueller while the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=01f-0f8&t=c>
(8/21, Lafraniere) also describes the verdict as “a victory for the special
counsel” because the trial “was the first test of the special counsel’s
ability to prosecute a case in a federal courtroom amid intense criticism
from the president and his allies that the inquiry is a biased and
unjustified witch hunt. And the outcome had substantial political
implications, if only in denying Mr. Trump more ammunition for his campaign
to discredit Mr. Mueller.” On NBC Nightly News[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=020-c66&t=c>
(8/21, story 2, 2:45, Holt), Pete Williams similarly described the
conviction as “a boost for Robert Mueller.” NBC legal analyst Daniel
Goldman added, “The prosecution will be happy the eight counts of
convictions were spread out among the different things he was accused of so
they can argue at sentencing that the judge should consider everything.”

        In her Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=021-8a6&t=c>
(8/21) column, Karen Tumulty asserts that while the President “is already
spinning this verdict as meaningless,” the conviction of Manafort shows
Mueller is not engaged in a “witch hunt” and will “increase the pressure on
others in Trump’s orbit to cooperate with Mueller. And it may encourage
Mueller to move sooner rather than later to bring in the president himself
to testify, possibly by issuing a subpoena.”

        However, on ABC World News Tonight[image: Image removed by sender.
Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=022-76d&t=c>
(8/21, story 4, 1:00, Muir), Terry Moran said the Manafort verdict “was not
a ringing endorsement of the prosecution.” According to Moran, “If anybody
is the winner, it’s probably the jury itself. In a highly politicized
environment, they reached a verdict. It was a victory for them.” In a Los
Angeles Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=023-9f0&t=c>
(8/21) op-ed, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman, a
professor of constitutional law at the University of California, San Diego,
disagrees. Litman asserts that “what is so gratifying about the verdict is
that Mueller played it by the book – and he still won. He investigated
fairly and thoroughly, uncovering a brazen series of frauds. Then he put
his evidence to the test in front of 12 jurors, who unanimously found
Manafort guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

        Meanwhile, Sean Hannity said on Fox News’ Hannity[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=024-069&t=c>
(8/21), “The media is once again beside themselves with false reporting,
speculation and hysteria. Yes, Paul Manafort was found guilty after a
northern Virginia jury found him guilty of eight out of 18 counts. Jurors
forced a mistrial on the other 10 charges after becoming deadlocked. ... By
the way, Manafort worked for Trump a little over 100 days. As we have said
so many times, these are decades-old bank charges, tax fraud charges.”

        Nonetheless, a front-page Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=025-6f9&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Barrett) article states that “for Trump, the outcome of
Manafort’s trial was only half of a double-barreled blast of bad news
Tuesday. Shortly after the verdict was read, the president’s former
longtime attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in an unrelated case to
eight crimes, saying that among other things, he helped arrange hush-money
payments during the campaign at Trump’s direction.” In a more than
2,500-word article about the response to the Manafort verdict, Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=026-5dd&t=c>
(8/21, Gerstein, Samuelsohn, Schreckinger) reports that House Minority
Leader Pelosi “praised the special counsel’s team and said the president
was now facing ‘greater legal jeopardy.’”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=027-056&t=c>
(8/21, Zengerle) reports that Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner
in a statement warned, “Any attempt by the President to pardon Mr. Manafort
or interfere in the investigation into his campaign would be a gross abuse
of power and require immediate action by Congress.”

        *Cohen Says Trump Directed Him To Violate Campaign Finance
Laws. *Trump’s
former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to “five
counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a bank and
two campaign finance violations: making an unlawful corporate campaign
contribution and making an excessive campaign contribution,” according to a
front-page Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=028-bf4&t=c>
(8/21, Leonnig) article, which says that he “agreed to the deal after
prosecutors claimed he risked more than a dozen years in prison.” Fox News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=029-ad9&t=c>
(8/21, Chamberlain) says on its website that Cohen “admitted Tuesday to
violating federal campaign finance laws by arranging hush money payments to
adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal ‘at
the direction’ of then-candidate Trump.” Fox adds, “As part of a plea deal,
Cohen admitted that the payments were coordinated with Trump in an effort
to influence the 2016 presidential election,” a claim that a front-page Wall
Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02a-66a&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Hong, Ballhaus) article says implicates Trump in a federal
crime.

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02b-7f8&t=c>
(8/21, Gerstein, Nahmias, Meyer) reports “Cohen, who once stated he would
take a bullet for Trump, flipped on his former boss in a dramatic courtroom
appearance that went down just as news emerged that...Manafort had been
found guilty in his own fraud trial.” In the lead NBC Nightly News[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02c-ad2&t=c>
(8/21, lead story, 3:35, Holt) segment, Hallie Jackson similarly said the
“bombshell plea deal means the man who used to fix the President’s problems
has now become one.” Jackson added, “It’s a stunning development for two
men whose relationship dates back a decade.” On the CBS Evening News[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02d-7bf&t=c>
(8/21, story 2, 2:50, Glor), Weijia Jiang reported “their relationship took
a dark turn in July when Cohen released a secret recording of his
conversation with then-candidate Trump about payments related to a Playboy
model who claims she also had an affair with Mr. Trump.”

        The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02e-213&t=c>
(8/21, Rashbaum, Haberman, Protess) reports that Cohen “made the
extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress ‘at the
direction of the candidate,’ referring to Mr. Trump, to secure her silence
about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump.” Cohen “told a judge in
United States District Court in Manhattan that the payment was ‘for the
principal purpose of influencing the election’ for president in 2016.”
However, The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=02f-7c4&t=c>
(8/21, Axelrod) reports the Justice Department in a court filing also said
Cohen “coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including
through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the
payments.” In another article, The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=030-ccb&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) reports “Cohen later submitted falsified invoices to the
candidate’s company to be reimbursed for the payments, prosecutors said.
They did not provide specifics, but appeared to be referring to the Trump
Organization.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=031-de2&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) “Briefing Room” blog reports that after Cohen reached the
plea deal, his lawyer, Lanny Davis, “argued...his client’s guilty plea and
subsequent testimony that he violated campaign finance laws ‘at the
direction of a candidate for federal office’ showed President Trump
committed a crime.” Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=032-b8a&t=c>
(8/21, Morin) reports Davis asserted, “If those payments were a crime for
Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” He
added, “This is Michael fulfilling his promise made...to put his family and
country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump.”

        Davis said on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=033-38a&t=c>
(8/21), “I think he had a very difficult decision to make and decided to
take responsibility. And he’s been through a difficult time. His family is
obviously suffering. But there’s also a sense of relief when I talked to
him today and a sense of liberation since when he first brought me in to
help him, it was about telling the truth and about telling the truth about
Donald Trump. And you saw in court today he not only implicated, he
specifically, under oath, stated that Donald Trump directed him to commit a
crime, making Donald Trump as much guilty of that felony as my client, Mr.
Cohen.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=034-535&t=c>
(8/22, Neumeister, Lemire), which describes Cohen’s account as
“extraordinary,” adds that his claim “marks the first time that any Trump
associate has gone into open court and implicated Trump himself in a crime,
though whether – or when – a president can be prosecuted remains a matter
of legal dispute.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=035-173&t=c>
(8/21, Pierson) reports that “under U.S. election law, campaign
contributions, defined as things of value given to a campaign in order to
influence an election, must be disclosed,” and “a payment intended to
silence allegations of an affair just before an election could constitute a
campaign contribution, some experts have said.” USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=036-5a8&t=c>
(8/21, Heath, Cummings, McCoy) says “the payment came at a particularly
sensitive moment, after the release of an Access Hollywood outtake in which
Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women and less than a month before
the election that carried Trump to the White House.”

        In an analysis, Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=037-c88&t=c>
(8/21, Feldman) declares Cohen’s plea deal is “unprecedented in U.S.
history,” as “never before has someone pleaded guilty in open court and
said he acted at the direction of the president. We are therefore entering
into a new phase of the Trump presidency – one that will be complex and
treacherous for the president and for the country.” Bloomberg News contends
“the closest historical analogy is when Watergate special prosecutor Leon
Jaworski named President Richard Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator.”
The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=038-53a&t=c>
(8/21, Boyer) reports that “legal analysts say Cohen’s plea agreement is
more troublesome legally for the president because it implicates him in
federal campaign finance crimes.”

        USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=039-d71&t=c>
(8/21, Schouten) similarly suggests that Cohen’s plea “could pose serious
political and legal risks for” Trump. Larry Noble, a former Federal
Election Commission lawyer who is currently the senior director of the
non-profit Campaign Legal Center, said, “This is a real crime. … Since
modern campaign-finance laws were passed, no sitting president has been
found to be involved personally in a campaign-finance violation” and
the Washington
Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03a-6c9&t=c>
(8/21, Morrongiello) reports former US Attorney Kendall Coffey said Cohen’s
plea has “created a bad week for the White House” and may mean Mueller’s
investigation “keeps going.”

        In a front-page article, Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03b-7d9&t=c>
(8/21, A1) chief correspondent Dan Balz predicts that “what took place
Tuesday will ratchet up the pressure on the president, will embolden his
critics, and will no doubt inflame and rally his supporters.” Balz adds “if
the past months have seemed increasingly hot, the coming months could be
hotter still – there’s little doubt that the Trump presidency has now
entered more treacherous territory, and no one can know where it will end.”
In her Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03c-69d&t=c>
(8/21, Rubin) column, Jennifer Rubin asserts that with Cohen’s guilty plea,
“Trump’s greatest fear comes true.” She concludes it is time to “buckle up.
Trump now goes from the frying pan into the fire.”

        Jonathan Turley said on Fox News’ Special Report[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03d-860&t=c>
(8/21), “If the prosecutors accept what is in this indictment, than the
President just became an unindicted co-conspirator, that’s the simple
matter of it. If they believe what’s in this indictment is true and that he
was directed to make this payment, they clearly believe that payment was a
campaign finance violation, then the President became an unindicted
co-conspirator.”

        Jeffrey Toobin said on CNN’s Situation Room[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03e-f3d&t=c>
(8/21) that it is of “immense significance” that Cohen “implicated Donald
Trump in a federal crime. He said that his violation of campaign finance
laws was in coordination with and at the direction of Donald Trump. That
means that according to this guilty plea, Donald Trump was a co-conspirator
and or an aider and abetter of this crime. That is in of itself something
of such great significance that I don’t even think it has a parallel during
Watergate.” Jim Acosta said on CNN’s Situation Room[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=03f-0d2&t=c>
(8/21) that Trump is “potentially implicated in a federal crime. It does
not get more serious or more troubling than that. I think it was
interesting that the President talked about that as he arrived in West
Virginia, talked about the Manafort case, did not talk about the Michael
Cohen case. The Michael Cohen case potentially has the President
immediately right now in very deep legal jeopardy.”

        On NBC Nightly News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=040-948&t=c>
(8/21, story 3, 1:00, Holt), Chuck Todd said, “One big thing fundamentally
changed. The President of the United States was accused of committing a
felony by his long time former personal lawyer. That’s the big thing.” Todd
added the plea deal “could be the beginning of what I think is a long
nightmare for the President involving all things Michael Cohen. The Paul
Manafort stuff is serious and shows Mueller has more to go on here. It
isn’t a witch hunt. If you’re the President tonight, the Michael Cohen news
has you absolutely petrified.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=041-a72&t=c>
(8/21, Anapol) reports “conservative New York Times columnist Bret
Stephens” tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=042-0c7&t=c>,
“I’ve been skeptical about the wisdom and merit of impeachment. Cohen’s
guilty plea changes that. The president is clearly guilty of high crimes
and misdemeanors. He should resign his office or be impeached and removed
from office.”

        On the CBS Evening News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=043-bd7&t=c>
(8/21, story 4, 2:25, Glor), Paula Reid said, “Legally, the Manafort
convictions don’t jeopardize the President, but they do fortify the special
counsel and will probably undercut some of the President’s unrelenting
criticism of their tactics and results. As for Cohen, the President and his
campaign are now implicated in deception when it comes to hush money from a
campaign.” Reid added, “Even Trump loyalists I have talked to tonight...say
that will be very hard to shake off.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=044-1f7&t=c>
(8/21, Concha) reports the Drudge Report “defined the dizzying series of
events surrounding President Trump on Tuesday afternoon as his ‘Hell Hour’”
New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=045-d90&t=c>,
“Trump folks are worried about impeachment more than before. The thinking
goes like this: this is something tangible, not a theoretical. And it
didn’t come from Mueller. Does not mean it will happen, but this has moved
to a different stage in their minds.”

        Alan Dershowitz said on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=046-182&t=c>
(8/21), “It really depends completely on the credibility of Cohen. Remember
as Judge Ellis said it, when they squeeze people like Manafort or Cohen,
they squeeze them not only to sing but sometimes to compose and it is very
easy to embellish the story.”

        Meanwhile, in the lead ABC World News Tonight[image: Image removed
by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=047-284&t=c>
(8/21, lead story, 5:40, Muir) segment, Tom Llamas reported the “big
question” is whether Cohen cooperates with the special counsel
investigation. Llamas added, “the agreement does not tell them he has to
cooperate,” but “prosecutors could recommend a reduced sentence if he is
working with them.” However, Nick Gravante, a Boies Schiller partner, told
CNBC
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=048-424&t=c>
(8/21) that “Cohen’s plea has no real effect on Trump’s legal situation if
he doesn’t cooperate – aside from the bad optics it creates.”

        Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=049-3ac&t=c>
(8/21, Van Voris, Berthelsen, Hurtado) notes “Cohen was released on
$500,000 bond, cosigned by his wife and a second person. The judge set
sentencing for Dec. 12.” The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04a-553&t=c>
(8/21, Wise) reports Cohen “was met with ‘lock him up’ chants outside a New
York City federal courthouse on Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges of
bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations.”

        *Giuliani: Cohen Plea Does Not Allege “Any Wrongdoing” By Trump. *The
Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04b-727&t=c>
(8/21, Burke) reports Rudy Giuliani in a statement to ABC News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04c-afb&t=c>
“asserted Tuesday that there is no allegation “of any wrongdoing” by Trump
in the charges that...Cohen pleaded guilty to earlier in the day.” Giuliani
said, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in
the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear that, as the
prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and
dishonesty over a significant period of time.” In the lead ABC World News
Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04d-49f&t=c>
(8/21, story 2, 0:55, Muir) segment, Cecilia Vega said that Trump and
Giuliani are correct in stating that the charges against Cohen “don’t name
the President. But Cohen made it clear, then-candidate Trump personally
directed him to make the payments. Legal experts are telling us that could
implicate the President in this in and of itself.”

        *Cornyn, Graham Distance Trump From Manafort, Cohen. *CNN
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04e-1e5&t=c>
(8/21, Fox, Herb) reports on its website, “Republicans downplayed the
connection of both cases to the White House.” Senate Majority Whip Cornyn
said he does not see a connection between Manafort and Cohen and “the
President and Russia.” Cornyn added, “My expectation is that Mr. Mueller
knows the lay of the land. The fact that he interviewed Don McGahn for 30
hours with the President’s approval strikes me as having nothing to hide
when it comes to the Russia investigation. So I hope this ends up
concluding sooner rather than later and doesn’t continue to be an issue in
another election.” In a statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “Thus
far, there have yet to be any charges or convictions for colluding with the
Russian government by any member of the Trump campaign in the 2016
election.” Graham added, “I hope Mr. Mueller can conclude his investigation
sooner rather than later for the benefit of the nation.”

        *Burr, Warner Call For Cohen To Again Testify Before Senate
Intelligence Committee. *The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=04f-458&t=c>
(8/21, Birnbaum) reports Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and Vice
Chairman Mark Warner in a joint statement “said on Tuesday that they
want...Cohen to testify before the panel regarding recent media reports
indicating he knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting before it took
place.” They stated that Cohen “appears to be pleading guilty to very
serious charges,” but “we have no insight into any agreements he and his
legal team have allegedly reached with the prosecutors in New York.” The
lawmakers added that they “recently re-engaged Mr. Cohen and his team
following press reports that suggested he had advanced knowledge of the
June 16th meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer at the
Trump Tower.” They concluded, “We hope that the day’s developments in Mr.
Cohen’s plea agreement will not preclude him from an appearance before our
committee as needed for ongoing investigation.”

        *Democrats, Trump Critics Say Manafort Verdict, Cohen Plea
Vindicate Special Counsel Probe. *The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=050-38b&t=c>
(8/21, Keller) reports, “The top Democrats on the Senate and House
Intelligence committees were among those saying the Tuesday conviction of
former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort proves the seriousness of
special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.” Warner tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=051-d58&t=c>,
“Today’s guilty verdict makes it absolutely clear that the Mueller probe is
a serious investigation that is rooting out corruption and Russian
influence on our political system at the highest levels.” Warner continued
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=052-103&t=c>,
“The President’s campaign manager was just convicted of serious federal
crimes by a jury of his peers, despite the President’s continued attempts
to undermine the investigation which has brought Mr. Manafort to justice.”
In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said,
“Donald Trump brought a culture of corruption from his campaign to the
White House. … The special counsel’s investigation has never been a ‘witch
hunt,’ and today’s verdict proves it. Paul Manafort wasn’t just Trump’s
campaign chair, he was one of his most trusted advisors; the two have known
each other for nearly four decades and reportedly spoke to each other
nearly 20 times a day.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=053-7ca&t=c>
(8/21, Carney) reports Senate Minority Leader Schumer “warned President
Trump on Tuesday that he should not discuss Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort
during a campaign stop in West Virginia later that day.” Schumer told
reporters, “He better not talk about pardons or Michael Cohen or Paul
Manafort tonight or any time in the future.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=054-445&t=c>
(8/21, Alexander) reports Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the top Democrat on the
House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that Cohen’s guilty plea
“is yet another set of convictions of the president’s inner circle.” Schiff
added, “The factual basis of the plea, potentially implicating the
President in illegal campaign finance violations, adds to the President’s
legal jeopardy.”

        Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary
Committee, tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=055-24b&t=c>,
“If, as Michael Cohen testified in his guilty plea, his felonies were
committed at the direction of @realDonaldTrump, then the POTUS would be
part of a federal crime – the only thing limiting DOJ from prosecuting
being an OLC ruling saying a sitting president cannot be indicted.”

        Meanwhile, the Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=056-bc2&t=c>
(8/21, Miller) reports “Trump’s political foes said the conviction and
guilty pleas vindicate Mr. Mueller and give momentum to his investigation.”
Robert Weissman, president of the liberal activist group Public Citizen,
said
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=057-af2&t=c>,
“No witch hunt here. It’s past time for President Trump to stand down on
his attacks on the Mueller investigation and accede to the rule of law.”
Tom Steyer said, “Michael Cohen’s admission of guilt is further proof that
Donald Trump has long been intimately engaged with deceitful, lawless, and
corrupt associates.” Steyer added, “The scrutiny surrounding any presidency
is slowly piercing the defenses for their criminality and exposing the
systemic moral rot that has surrounded Trump for years.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=058-2fd&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) reports Stormy Daniels in a statement to NBC News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=059-ae4&t=c>
(8/21) said she has been “vindicated” by Cohen’s guilty plea. Daniels added
that she and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, “look forward to the apologies
from the people who claimed we were wrong.” Avenatti also said on MSNBC[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05a-4b6&t=c>
(8/21) that Trump has only been in office “19 or 20 months and his entire
criminal enterprise is crumbling around him. ... There’s no question that
Michael Cohen pleading guilty today is going to have serious ramifications.
Whether there’s a cooperation clause or not within that documentation is
really of little consequence, because I can tell you with 100 percent
confidence that he is cooperating with prosecutors.” Avenatti said on CNN’s
Cuomo Prime Time
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05b-2f6&t=c>
(8/21), “You don’t have to have it in writing in the documents in order to
have an agreement in place. I’m highly confident – in fact, I know –
Michael Cohen has been providing information. Prosecutors in SDNY are
expecting him to continue to cooperate because if he doesn’t, they have the
ultimate hammer, and that is at the sentencing stage, which for Michael
Cohen is going to take place in December.”

        The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05c-030&t=c>
(8/21, Lim) reports, “Former White House aide and ex-reality TV star
Omarosa Manigault Newman said...Cohen’s guilty pleas could be the death
knell of President Trump’s administration.” In an interview with MSNBC,
Manigault Newman said, “Today changed everything. This is the beginning of
the end for Donald Trump.” She added the President “knows that the person
who knows everything about him, about his relationship with these women,
and others people may not know about will come to light.” The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05d-e02&t=c>
(8/21, Burke) “Briefing Room” blog reports Omarosa also “shared a video
Tuesday night showing...Cohen boarding a Trump plane in September 2016.”

        *Critics Reject Trump’s Claim That He Could Take Over Mueller
Probe. *On NBC’s Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05e-9b8&t=c>
(8/21), Hoda Kotb reported that Trump is “voicing concerns about a
potential interview with...Mueller.” Kristen Welker went on to report that
in an interview with Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=05f-393&t=c>
(8/20, Holland, Mason, Oliphant), Trump “escalat[ed] his attacks
against...Mueller again, this time with a stunning claim that he could take
charge of the Russia investigation if he wanted to.” According to Welker,
Trump is “asserting that, as President, he is ‘totally allowed’ to be
involved in the investigation and suggesting he could take charge of it if
he wanted to.” Welker added that in the same Reuters interview, Trump
“again neglected to blame Russia for interfering in the 2016 election
despite that conclusion by the US intelligence community,” and claimed
“Mueller’s investigation played right into the Russians’ hands.”

        Likewise, on ABC’s Good Morning America[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=060-b9b&t=c>
(8/21), Cecilia Vega reported that Trump is “insisting he has the power to
run the Russia probe himself,” and “says he just hasn’t chosen to do that.”
Legal analyst Dan Abrams said, “Look, this is a special counsel – an
outside counsel, independent counsel – If the President’s running that
investigation, it’s no longer independent, it’s no longer outside and it’s
no longer special, so that’s not going to happen.” However, Abrams added,
“I guess, in theory, he could certainly end the investigation if he wanted
to instruct someone, order someone, to fire Rosenstein, to fire Mueller, to
shut down the investigation. He could do that.”

        On CBS This Morning
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=061-597&t=c>
(8/21), Major Garrett said, “The President’s suggestion he could run an
inquiry into his own conduct raised more questions about his understanding
of obstruction of justice, an area of interest to Mueller.” Garrett went on
to report that Trump “said he was reluctant to give an interview to Mueller
because it could be a potential perjury trap, expressing fears that
investigators could compare his version of the firing of James Comey
against the notes and recollections of the former FBI director.” Garrett
quoted Trump as saying: “It’s my word against his, and he’s best friends
with Mueller, so Mueller might say, ‘Well, I believe Comey.’ And even if
I’m telling the truth, that makes me a liar. That’s no good.” Garrett noted
Trump “also told Reuters he might lift sanctions on Russia if there is
cooperation from Moscow on Syria and Ukraine.” According to Garrett, “Both
seem highly unlikely: cooperation and Congress going along with any lifting
of Russia sanctions.”

        When asked on Fox News’ Outnumbered Overtime[image: Image removed
by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=062-eaf&t=c>
(8/21) what Trump meant by his claim that he could run the Russia
investigation, Kellyanne Conway said, “The President and his team have been
incredibly compliant and cooperative with the Mueller investigation. You
have one million documents produced, 33 some witnesses have gone and
visited the Mueller investigation and in testified under oath thusly, and
this is a President that thinks it completely ridicules the system of
justice if we are not looking at the other side of this investigation. You
had a corrupt dealings all the way up the chain in the FBI.” Conway added,
“The President, there is a level of frustration and consternation that we
are not looking at all sides of this equation. The President, also, the
special counsel is under his purview but he has been very cooperative as
have that other people that have been asked to speak with Mr. Mueller.”

        However, The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=063-05f&t=c>
(8/21, Carney) reports Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) also “hit back at President
Trump on Tuesday, saying the president was ‘wrong’ to suggest he could run
special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.” Flake added Trump cannot
take over the investigation “and he ought to stop trying to undermine it as
well. It’s unseemly, it really is – these statements calling people ‘thugs’
and ‘lowlifes.’”

        *Prosecutors Again Delay Sentencing For Flynn. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=064-6f7&t=c>
(8/21, Press) reports, “Prosecutors with the special counsel’s office say
President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn is
not yet ready to be sentenced.” According to the AP, “the joint filing with
defense lawyers Tuesday is a sign that Flynn’s cooperation with
investigators is continuing.” The AP says “the two sides say they’ll report
back to the judge no later than Sept. 17.”

        *Judge Dismisses Lawsuit From Russian Oligarchs Against Steele. *The
Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=065-63a&t=c>
(8/21, Swoyer) reports District of Columbia Superior Court Associate Judge
Anthony Epstein “dismissed a case Monday against the author of the infamous
Trump dossier brought by three Russian oligarchs.” According to the Times,
“the Russian billionaires, who are financially linked to Alfa Bank in
Moscow, claimed Christopher Steele and his firm defamed them in his dossier
about then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election.” The Times adds
that while “the judge did not determine if the dossier was accurate or
fake,” Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday on Fox News, “The ridiculous dossier,
may I remind your audience, it’s just a fancy French word for a load of
crap.”

        *Vanity Fair: Trump Increasing Twitter Use Over Frustration With
Mueller Probe. *“Three of Trump’s outside advisers” told Vanity Fair
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=066-5cc&t=c>
(8/21, Sherman) that Trump in recent weeks “has privately expressed doubts
about White House lawyer Don McGahn’s loyalty,” and “The New York Times’
revelation that McGahn had spoken for more than 30 hours with Mueller’s
investigators has rattled Trump and the West Wing to the core...causing
Trump to ratchet up his Twitter war on Mueller to new heights.” Vanity Fair
adds “a lot of what’s driving Trump’s ire, White House advisers said, is
Trump’s growing realization that his previous legal team, Ty Cobb and John
Dowd, made a strategic error in waiving executive privilege to cooperate
fully with Mueller. But Trump being Trump, he won’t admit to making this
mistake, so he directs blame onto others.”

        *Study Finds Broadcast News Is Fixated On Russia Investigation. *The
Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=067-f3a&t=c>
(8/21, Harper) reports “conservative press watchdog” Newsbusters.org in
“meticulous study of network broadcast coverage in the last 19 months”
found “as far as CBS, NBC and ABC are concerned, it’s all Russia, all the
time.” Rich Noyes, senior analyst for Newsbusters.org, said, “As of August
15, the three broadcast network evening newscasts have devoted a combined
1,854 minutes to the probe, or nearly one-fifth (19.6 percent) of all of
their Trump news. Yet virtually none of that airtime (just 62 minutes, or
3.3 percent) has been spent scrutinizing Robert Mueller’s investigation – a
big shift from twenty years ago, when the networks made Ken Starr’s conduct
the focus of much of their coverage.” According to the Times, “the study
found that the ‘Big Three’ networks collectively spent only 69 seconds on
Mr. Mueller’s possible ‘conflict of interest,’ and 39 minutes on the emails
sent between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.”

        *Obama White House Counsel Calls On McGahn To Put Loyalty To
Country Over Service To Trump. *In a Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=068-c5f&t=c>
(8/21) op-ed, Bob Bauer, a professor of practice at New York University Law
School and White House counsel under former President Obama, says current
White House counsel Donald McGahn “finds himself, a witness rather than
counsel in about 30 hours of interviews with special counsel Robert S.
Mueller III’s team over nine months.” Bauer concludes, “Some critics have
suggested that because the counsel is inevitably ensnared in conflicting
loyalties, the position ought to be abolished. But the president cannot get
by without dedicated lawyers to help with the government’s business. If his
legal problems become personal, then he and the White House counsel have to
have a shared understanding of the boundaries – as defined by the lawyer’s
ethics and, one can only hope, a president’s character and respect for his
own office.”
Foreign Policy
US Imposes Additional Sanctions On Russia For North Korea Transactions.

The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=069-905&t=c>
(8/21, Harris) reports the US “announced a series of sanctions on Tuesday
targeting Russia, including ships that are delivering Russian oil to North
Korea despite ongoing sanctions and marine companies that are supplying
Russia’s military.” The ships, “based in Vladivostok and operating for
Primorye Maritime Logistics Co. and Gudzon Shipping Co., have defied
international sanctions against North Korea by engaging in ship-to-ship
transfers of oil to North Korean ships, which then bring the contraband
into North Korean ports.” Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06a-f64&t=c>
(8/21, Mohsin) reports the US targeted the “owners of six Russian ships
over claims they are helping transfer refined petroleum products to North
Korean vessels in violation of international prohibitions, as tensions with
both Moscow and Pyongyang intensify.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06b-188&t=c>
(8/21, Brunnstrom) reports Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said in a statement,
“Ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia or
elsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from
(North Korea) are prohibited under the U.N. Security Council resolutions on
North Korea and are sanctionable under U.S. law.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06c-c1e&t=c>
(8/21, Miller) says the move “reinforced the administration’s ‘maximum
pressure’ campaign to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.”
The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06d-e80&t=c>
(8/21, Talley) reports the move represents an intensification of US
economic duress against Russia.

        *Treasury, State Dept. Officials Defend Administration Approach To
Russia. *The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06e-18c&t=c>
(8/21, Fandos, Edmondson) reports that “key lawmakers from both parties
signaled on Tuesday that they were ready to move forward with punishing new
sanctions legislation capable of crippling the Russian economy. And in
three separate hearings on Capitol Hill, senators prodded the Trump
administration to do more with its existing authorities to deter Russia and
protect American political infrastructure.” According to the Times,
“Administration officials aggressively pushed back and argued that the
current sanctions regime provided all the authority they need, and they
dismissed concerns that President Trump’s equivocation on questions of
Russian interference had harmed their efforts.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=06f-09a&t=c>
(8/21, Lee) reports that the Treasury Department has “added to its growing
list of sanctions against Russia...as U.S. lawmakers urged tighter economic
restrictions on Moscow.” The Treasury announced it is “blacklisting two
companies and two individuals suspected of trying to circumvent U.S.
sanctions imposed in June in response to cyberattacks.” The AP adds that
“senior officials from the State and Treasury departments told two Senate
hearings Tuesday that since January 2017, 217 Russian business people,
officials, and private and state-run companies, including 14 banks and 20
energy firms, have been sanctioned. In addition, they recalled that the
administration had expelled 60 Russian spies and closed Russia’s consulates
in San Francisco and Seattle.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=070-b8c&t=c>
(8/21) reports that “the sanctioned companies, Saint Petersburg-based
Vela-Marine Ltd and Slovakia-based Lacno S.R.O., and the two individuals
helped Divetechnoservices evade previously imposed sanctions.” Reuters adds
that the Treasury “said the two individuals targeted on Tuesday under the
cyber-related sanctions program, Marina Igorevna Tsareva and Anton
Aleksandrovich Nagibin, had both helped Divetechnoservices attempt to
circumvent U.S. sanctions.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=071-270&t=c>
(8/21, Zengerle, Chiacu) reports acting Deputy Treasury Secretary Sigal
Mandelker told the Senate Banking Committee, “Though Russia’s malign
activities continue, we believe its adventurism undoubtedly has been
checked by the knowledge that we can bring much more economic pain to bear
using our powerful range of authorities – and that we will not hesitate to
do so if its conduct does not demonstrably and significantly change.” Also
on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell told the Foreign
Relations Committee “that concern about sanctions has cost Russia $8 to $10
billion in arms deals,” while “foreign direct investment in Russia has
fallen by 80 percent since 2013.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=072-44e&t=c>
(8/21) reports Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov decried the
new US sanctions as “groundless” and “promis[ed] a response from Moscow.”

        *UK Foreign Minster Praises Trump For “Willing To Be Very Tough” In
Regards To Russia. *The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=073-944&t=c>
(8/21, Deyoung) reports that UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt “praised
President Trump for increasingly strong sanctions against Russia and called
on Europeans to match his efforts, whether in response to a nerve agent
attack in England last spring, election interference or the annexation of
Crimea.” Hunt said Trump is “absolutely focused on upholding the
international order.” Hunt added, “If you look at his actions, he’s
actually willing to be very tough, tougher in fact that many of his
predecessors.” The Post adds, “While Trump’s admiring outreach toward Putin
has raised bipartisan concerns in this country, Hunt’s assessment echoes
the administration’s own emphasis on deeds rather than words.”

        *Attacks Targeting Conservative Groups In US Tied To Russian
Hackers. *On ABC’s Good Morning
America
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=074-75c&t=c>
(8/21), Paula Faris reported that Microsoft “has detected new hacking
attempts tied to the Russian government that were reportedly targeting
conservative think tanks that are pushing for continued sanctions against
Moscow.” The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=075-772&t=c>
(8/21, O'Brien) reports Microsoft said Tuesday that the Russian hackers
targeted the US political groups ahead of the midterm elections by creating
“fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative
organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican
Institute. Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged
to the U.S. Senate.” Microsoft “said there is no sign the hackers were
successful in persuading anyone to click on the fake websites,” and both
the Hudson Institute and IRI “said they have tried to be vigilant about
‘spear-phishing’ email attacks because their global pro-democracy work has
frequently drawn the ire of authoritarian governments.”

        On NBC’s Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=076-c8b&t=c>
(8/21), Kristen Welker reported that the “six fake websites meant to look
like conservative public policy sites...were created by a hacking group
linked with the Russian government.” Welker added that, “so far, there’s no
evidence the fake sites were used to launch attacks,” but, “still, it’s an
indication Russian hackers remain committed to interfering with elections
right here with midterms fast approaching.” According to John
Dickerson of [image:
Image removed by sender. Video]CBS This Morning
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=077-6fc&t=c>
(8/21), “The hacking attempts are similar to others from the 2016 election,
where political officials were lured into exposing passwords and personal
information.”

        Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told [image: Image removed by
sender. Video]CNN’s New Day
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=078-eaf&t=c>
(8/21), “I actually work a lot with the Hudson Institute. They are running
a kleptocracy initiative whose purpose is to shut down the access of
international criminals and people who loot their countries...through shell
corporations and various kinds of sleazy anonymity. And I think the
Russians see that as a direct threat at their oligarchs, who are almost
inevitably crooks and people who are looting their country. ... I think the
Hudson Institute’s kleptocracy initiative is a direct threat to the little
circle of crooked oligarchs who surround and support Vladimir Putin and to
Vladimir Putin himself.”

        *Former CIA, DHS Official Calls For “Extreme” Responses To
Cyberattacks. *In a Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=079-5d3&t=c>
(8/21) op-ed, Stewart Baker, a former DHS Assistant Secretary for Policy
who also served as the National Security Agency’s general counsel, urges
the US to develop “creative new ways to punish nations” that use
“devastating” cyberattacks. Baker says sanctions and “naming and shaming”
are “inadequate options” to deter the advancing cyberattack capabilities
evidenced by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other US adversaries. He adds,
“The need for options to strike back at cyber-aggressors is obvious – and
urgent.” He recommends several offensive cyber options that could deter
adversarial nations and their “cyberweapons’ leveling effect.” Bake says
while some of his recommendations are “extreme,” the US needs “a few
unthinkable responses” if it no longer “want[s] to suffer more extreme
injuries at the hands of our adversaries.”
IAEA: No Sign North Korea Has Halted Nuclear Weapons Activities.

USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07a-8d9&t=c>
(8/21, Jackson) reports, “Two months after President Donald Trump endorsed
North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize,” the International Atomic Energy
Agency said in a new report that “there is no sign that Kim Jong Un’s
government has stopped its nuclear weapons activities.” The IAEA reports
says “‘the continuation and further development’ of North Korea’s nuclear
program is ‘cause for grave concern.’”

        *Kim Blasts North Korea’s Public Health Sector. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07b-712&t=c>
(8/21, Lee) says North Korean state media reported that Kim “took aim at
his country’s health sector” in the “latest salvo of public criticism
unleashed as part of his campaign to jumpstart economic development.” KCNA
said during “a visit to the Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory in North
Phyongan province northeast of the capital Pyongyang, Kim strongly
condemned the lack of visible modernization at the factory.” Kim said there
is “nothing to be proud of in the public health sector,” and he “promised
personal attention to the work of updating the factory in keeping with the
goal to ‘radically’ improve ‘domestic production, automation and
modernization,’ KCNA said.”

        *Relief Groups: Sanctions Have Largely Shut Down Humanitarian Aid
For North Korea. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07c-8da&t=c>
(8/20, Shin) reports relief groups are cautioning that humanitarian aid
“for North Korea has nearly ground to a halt this year as the United States
steps up the enforcement of sanctions, despite warnings of a potential food
crisis and improving relations with Pyongyang.” Officials with United
Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations believe the “strict
interpretations of U.N. sanctions curtailing banking and shipping
transactions with Pyongyang, as well as a travel ban for U.S. citizens,
have effectively shut down the North Korea operations of most relief
groups.”

        *Top US Commander Backs South Korean Plan To Reduce DMZ Outposts. *
Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07d-e8a&t=c>
(8/22, Smith) reports US Gen. Vincent Brooks, the top commander of American
troops in South Korea, “said on Wednesday he supports moves to withdraw
some outposts along the fortified border with North Korea, despite the
risks.” The South Korean Defense Ministry “has said it plans to reduce
guard posts and equipment along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on its border
with North Korea as part of efforts to reduce tension and build trust with
its northern neighbor.” Brooks said while he has “some concerns about what
that means militarily for the ability to defend along the Military
Demarcation Line,” the “risk is ‘a reasonable degree’ and the move
represents a good opportunity to reduce tensions.” Asked whether he knew
about President Trump’s decision to cancel or delay joint US-South Korea
military drills prior to the June announcement, Brooks responded: “I
received no order to become unready.” He added, “Nobody told me to stand
down.”

        *More South Koreans To Reunite With Northern Relatives This
Weekend. *Reporting that roughly “200 South Koreans and their family
members are spending the second day in North Korea where they are seeing
relatives for the first time in decades,” [image: Image removed by sender.
Video]Fox News’ Special Report
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07e-254&t=c>
(8/21) added that another 337 South Koreans and accompanying family members
will participate in a second round of reunions this weekend. The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=07f-621&t=c>
(8/21, Tong-Hyung) reports that during the family reunions, relatives
reconnected “likely for the last time before they die” in “heartbreaking”
encounters that at the same time “often belie a highly political and
tightly controlled event in which participants often struggle to have
genuine conversations.” Citizens from both North and South Korea,
“especially the elderly who remember the bitterness and bloodshed of the
war, often wear their nationalism on their sleeves, and some South Koreans
have complained that their relatives take every chance to score propaganda
points for their authoritarian nation.”
Facebook Accuses Iran, Russia Of Disinformation Campaign.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=080-9f3&t=c>
(8/21, Nakashima) reports that Tuesday night, Facebook announced Iran was
responsible for targeting hundreds of thousands of individuals around the
world in a disinformation campaign dating back to at least 2011. Facebook
indicated that Iranians with ties to state media operations created fake
Facebook and Instagram accounts, bought ads to sway public opinion on
behalf of the Iranian regime, and used social media to organize events. The New
York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=081-1bf&t=c>
(8/21, Frenkel, Fandos) reports that Facebook said it identified and
disabled 652 fake accounts that originated not only in Iran, but also
Russia. According to the Times, Facebook said that “unlike...past influence
operations, which largely targeted Americans, the fake accounts, pages and
groups were this time also aimed at people in Latin America, Britain, the
Middle East, as well as in the United States.” In a statement, SSCI Ranking
Member Mark Warner said, “There’s no way the problem of social media
manipulation is limited to a single troll farm in St. Petersburg, and that
fact is now beyond a doubt. Iranians are now following the Kremlin’s
playbook from 2016.”

        The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=082-b8a&t=c>
(8/21, Seetharaman, Volz) reports Facebook said, however, that no evidence
suggests the Iranian and Russian campaigns were connected. According to the
Journal, the Iranian influence campaigns appear to reflect Tehran’s
intensified effort to push its geopolitical agenda via online subterfuge.
Hunt Defends UK’s Support For Iran Nuclear Deal.

The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=083-564&t=c>
(8/21, Donati) reports in his speech in his inaugural visit to Washington
on Tuesday, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt defended Britain’s continued
support for the Iran nuclear deal. Hunt said the deal negotiated by the
P5+1 and Iran remained the best way to contain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Hunt said, “We do have a genuine difference of opinion because we think the
best way to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons is to stick with the
nuclear deal. The Administration has a different view.”

        *Rouhani Unveils New Iranian Fighter Jet. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=084-5ee&t=c>
(8/21) reports Iran “displayed a new twin-seat fighter jet Tuesday, saying
it’s all Iranian-made and with advanced avionics and fire control systems,”
as President Hassan Rouhani “said it would enhance Tehran’s deterrence
capabilities in confronting Washington.” State TV broadcast Rouhani
“briefly sitting in the plane’s cockpit inside a hangar just before the
inauguration ceremony.” Rouhani said, “The enemy should see how expensive
an invasion of Iran would be. Why does not the US wage a military attack on
us? Because of our power.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=085-186&t=c>
(8/21, Sharafedin) reports Rouhani said the country “had to develop its
military forces to prevent other states taking over its territory and
resources.” Rouhani said, “We should make ourselves ready to fight against
the military powers who want to take over our territory and our resources.”

        The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=086-d5f&t=c>
(8/21, Eqbali, Fitch) reports the ceremony was intended to demonstrate the
Iranian regime’s military prowess as tensions with the US rise. The new
Iranian Kowsar jet will supplement a force of about 150 aging Russian and
American fighter jets. Military aviation experts, however, cast doubt on
Iran’s claims that the new jet was equivalent of modern jet fighters.

        *Iraqi Officials To Ask US For Waivers From Some US Sanctions. *
Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=087-d50&t=c>
(8/21, Rasheed, Aboulenein) reports Iraqi government and central bank
officials said Baghdad’s economy is “so closely linked to Iran” that they
will ask Washington “for permission to ignore some U.S. sanctions on its
neighbor.” The request “would mark an important change in political tactics
for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He initially said Baghdad would
respect all the U.S. sanctions but faced heavy criticism from rivals.” A
State Department official “said it was discussing Iran policy with its
partners around the world,” adding, “Iraq is a friend and important partner
of the U.S and we are we are committed to ensuring Iraqi stability and
prosperity.”

        *Iran Resumes Supplying Electricity To Iraq. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=088-78b&t=c>
(8/21, Sharafedin) reports Iran said it “had resumed supplies of
electricity to Iraq and other neighboring states 10 days earlier, after
shortages in Iraqi cities sparked unrest in July.” Tehran had “stopped
supplying electricity to Iraq in July due to unpaid bills and because of a
rise in Iranian consumption during the summer.”

        *Oil Rises On US Sanctions On Iran. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=089-1c7&t=c>
(8/21, Cooper) reports oil “rose on Tuesday, buoyed by the prospect of
price support from U.S. sanctions on Iran, although with concern brewing
about the outlook for demand, particularly in light of the trade dispute
between Washington and Beijing, gains were limited.”
Rockets Hit Targets Near Afghan Presidential Palace, US Embassy, NATO
Compound.

The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08a-b69&t=c>
(8/21, Shah, Gannon) reports that earlier today, “rockets slammed into the
heart of...Kabul” while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani “delivered a speech
marking a Muslim holiday.” The AP adds, “No injuries were reported from the
mortar rounds that hit in the diplomatic quarter; one struck near the
presidential palace, another near a NATO compound and the U.S. Embassy,
according to police official Jan Agha.”

        *Lavrov: Taliban To Attend Talks In Moscow. *[image: Image removed
by sender. Video]Fox News’ Special Report
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08b-b3f&t=c>
(8/21) reported Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday said the
Taliban accepted Moscow’s invitation for direct talks next month. Saying
such a visit “would mark a turning point in global attempts to publicly
bring the insurgents to the negotiating table,” the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08c-2e6&t=c>
(8/21, Ferris-Rotman) says Moscow also “invited delegates from 11
countries, including regional heavyweights China, Iran and Pakistan, which
border Afghanistan, to attend the Sept. 4 talks in the Russian capital.”
Later Tuesday, a State Department spokesman indicated that the US will not
send a delegation to the talks. “We support Afghan-owned and -led
initiatives to advance a peace settlement in Afghanistan” and “believe this
initiative is unlikely to yield any progress toward that end,” the
spokesman said. The Post says back-channel diplomacy between the insurgent
group “and a range of countries, from the United States to Turkey and Saudi
Arabia, has taken place over a number of years, often under the shroud of
secrecy, aimed at ending the crippling and costly 17-year war.”
Turkish Lira Weakens After Trump Rules Out Concessions.

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08d-a39&t=c>
(8/21, Butler) reports the Turkish lira weakened “from a close of 6.0865”
against the US dollar on Monday to 6.0925 on Tuesday, a day after President
Trump “criticized Ankara over the detention of the evangelical Christian
pastor, Andrew Brunson, and said he was not concerned that his tough stance
against Turkey could end up hurting European and emerging market
economies.” In an interview with Reuters, Trump “said that, after he helped
persuade Israel to free a detained Turkish citizen, he thought Turkish
President Tayyip Erdogan would then release Brunson.” He said of Turkey’s
response, “I think they’re making a terrible mistake. There will be no
concessions.” Turkish officials declined to “comment on Trump’s remarks
when they spoke after prayers” to begin “the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival
that continues for the rest of this week,” but Reuters says Trump’s
comments marked “the latest salvo in a worsening rift between the NATO
allies.”
Businesses, Trade Groups Urge Administration To Reconsider China Tariffs.

A New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08e-ed2&t=c>
(8/21, Solomon, Bouchard) analysis says as the Trump Administration
prepares to impose an additional “10 percent tariff on another $16 billion
worth of Chinese products, bringing the total so far to $50 billion,” US
officials are “weighing a 25 percent tariff on another $200 billion worth
of Chinese goods, including materials used in many of the consumer products
that were spared in the first round.” The Times says with the
Administration’s latest moves, “President Trump’s trade war with China is
about to hit home for many consumers.” Representatives from nearly “400
companies, trade groups and others are descending on Washington this week
to testify at six days of hearings before the United States trade
representative.” Some “are speaking out in support of the tariffs,” but “a
majority of those testifying are opposed and trying to persuade American
trade officials not to tax the Chinese products or materials they depend
on.”

        The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=08f-47c&t=c>
(8/21, Langford) reports that “Kohl’s, the retailer introducing Nine West
shoes and handbags to its department stores,” is one of the many American
businesses “bracing for potentially higher costs as the Trump
administration considers including apparel in its latest round of tariffs
on Chinese imports.” Kohl’s Chief Financial Officer Bruce Besanko told
analysts and investors on Tuesday that the “tariffs haven’t yet been
applied to apparel,” but “we’re obviously monitoring the situation
closely.” Kohl’s executives are “conferring with vendors and reviewing
company’s supply chain to determine the potential impact, which Besanko
said should be curbed by a diverse manufacturing base.” The Examiner says
the “retailer’s bottom line, like those of many competitors, hasn’t shown
significant harm yet from Trump’s global trade war,” but the next six
months “may prove more challenging if Trump adds further tariffs against
both allies and competitors and they continue to retaliate.”

        *Analysts Predict China’s Economic Growth To Slow Amid Trade War
With US. *Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=090-957&t=c>
(8/21, News) says as the trade war escalates, China’s economy will likely
“slow more sharply next year if they’re enacted, underscoring the high
stakes nature of negotiations set to resume this week” in Washington. If
the US acts on its “threat to impose additional tariffs on $200 billion of
Chinese goods and China retaliates with levies on $60 billion of imports
from America,” then China’s economic growth will drop “by 0.2 percentage
point this year and 0.3 percentage point in 2019, according to the median
estimate of 16 analysts in a Bloomberg survey this month.” China’s
“government has already announced a range of measures to support growth,
including more infrastructure projects and tax cuts,” but with US and
Chinese officials convening for their “first major talks in more than two
months, the next round of tariffs could begin as soon as Sept. 6.”

        Jonathan Swan and Mike Allen of Axios
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=091-41b&t=c>
(8/21, Swan, Allen) report that “with China’s economy cooling, President
Trump and his aides are emboldened on the hardline tariffs strategy that
they increasingly believe is jamming President Xi Jinping.” According to
Swan and Allen, “For West Wing policy advisers, China has become a rare
unifying issue, while deep rifts remain on other trade issues, especially
the wisdom of Trump’s plan to impose massive tariffs on car imports.” Swan
and Allen add, “Most administration aides and congressional Republicans
oppose the imposition of auto tariffs, although Trump remains warm to the
idea. But no one is pushing back on China.”

        *Trump Discusses NAFTA Renegotiations With Union Leaders. *Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=092-769&t=c>
(8/21, Kullgren) reports White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters
said President Trump, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff Kelly,
and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro met with union leaders on
Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of NAFTA renegotiations. The
meeting comes as US and Mexican negotiators struggle to “nail down labor
provisions in NAFTA.” The negotiators cannot agree on “how to make the
agreement’s new labor rules enforceable in way that will overcome the Trump
administration’s aversion to being bound to trade rules,” although both US
and Mexican union leaders “argue that wage suppression south of the border
is largely the result of workers being threatened or stymied when they try
to organize.”

        *Canada May Join US-Mexico NAFTA Talks This Week. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=093-dbf&t=c>
(8/21, Lawder, Angulo) reports USTR Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Minister
Ildefonso Guajardo “were set to resume talks over the North American Free
Trade Agreement in Washington on Tuesday in a final push for a deal on
autos that would open the door for Canada to return to negotiations this
week.” If the two officials “can resolve remaining bilateral issues, ‘the
plan is to try to incorporate Canada into the discussions,’ possibly as
early as Thursday, said a Mexican source close to the talks.” According to
Reuters, the US and Mexico “are close to a deal to increase North American
automotive content thresholds, with substantial requirements for content
produced in high-wage areas, namely the United States and Canada.”

        Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=094-9b4&t=c>
(8/21, Luhnow, Pérez) reports that Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel
López Obrador’s transition team is divided on whether to include a new
chapter on energy investments. US and Canadian negotiators and current
Mexican negotiators have already agreed on the proposed chapter’s inclusion
in the renegotiated deal. Yet, Bloomberg News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=095-074&t=c>
(8/21, Martin, Stillman) says, “leftist hardliners close to López Obrador”
are seeking “to avoid making any additional commitment to the overhaul.”
Meanwhile, “academics and pragmatists close to López Obrador, and the
current negotiating team assembled by the administration of President
Enrique Pena Nieto,” are warning “that making new demands of the U.S. on
issues that were previously thought to be resolved could scuttle the past
year of talks” ahead of a possible “breakthrough to finish a full deal.”
Some members of the incoming president’s transition team “also want to
remove energy issues from Nafta’s investor-state dispute settlement
process, known as Chapter 11, according to two other people with knowledge
of the talks.”
Domestic Policy
Trump Denies Report He Discussed Restricting Obama’s Intelligence Briefings.

The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=096-c35&t=c>
(8/21, Bowden) reports President Trump on Tuesday tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=097-428&t=c>,
“Fake News, of which there is soooo much (this time the very tired New
Yorker) falsely reported that I was going to take the extraordinary step of
denying Intelligence Briefings to President Obama. Never discussed or
thought of!” The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=098-90b&t=c>
(8/21, Wagner) says The New Yorker
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=099-7b2&t=c>
“reported Monday that then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster had
talked Trump out of the idea, which some White House officials were pushing
last year in the wake of Trump’s assertion, without evidence, that Obama
had ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 election campaign.”
According to the Post, “The notion of restricting Obama’s access to
security briefings was sharply criticized by former intelligence
officials.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09a-1af&t=c>
(8/21, Murray) reports “the New Yorker story, which focuses largely on
former CIA Director John Brennan, comes at a time where the president has
publicly weighed revoking the security clearances of several former
officials who have publicly criticized him,” and days after the White House
announced “it had revoked Brennan’s security clearance and placed the
clearances of several others under review.” USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09b-123&t=c>
(8/21, Jackson) reports Brennan “has accused Trump of acting improperly on
issues ranging from Russia to his criticism of Obama.” USA Today adds that
“Brennan has also accused Trump of colluding with Russians who sought to
influence the 2016 election by hacking Democrats.”

        *Trump Speculates Clapper Is “Being Nice” To Keep His Security
Clearance. *The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09c-d5f&t=c>
(8/21, Folley) “Briefing Room” blog reports Trump on Tuesday tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09d-eb9&t=c>,
“Even James Clapper has admonished John Brennan for having gone totally off
the rails. Maybe Clapper is being nice to me so he doesn’t lose his
Security Clearance for lying to Congress!” According to The Hill, former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper “said on Sunday that he
thought Brennan’s rhetoric was becoming an ‘issue.’”

        *Conway Defends Trump For Revoking Brennan’s Clearance. *Kellyanne
Conway said on Fox News’ Outnumbered Overtime[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09e-660&t=c>
(8/21), “Not everyone who has had a security clearance keeps them when they
public service, I should say. Some do. There are two primary reasons why
somebody would. Number on is if you want to have a continuum, if that
person wants to be helpful to the next administration and Mr. Brennan has
proven he does not wish to be helpful of this Administration. In fact, he
is a virulent critic of this Administration and this President’s policies
on cable TV where is now paid for his opinions.”

        *McConnell Declines To Criticize Trump For Pulling Security
Clearances. *The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=09f-dd4&t=c>
(8/21, Wagner) reports President Trump on Monday threatened to revoke the
security clearance former CIA and FBI official Philip Mudd, but “pressed
Tuesday afternoon on Trump’s actions,” Senate Majority Leader McConnell
“declined to criticize the president.” McConnell said, “That’s within
purview of the President’s authority. I don’t have any advice to give him.”

        *Thiessen Laments That Trump Made “Hack” Brennan “A Martyr.” *In
his Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a0-6b1&t=c>
(8/21) column, Marc Thiessen agrees with the President that Brennan is a
“hack,” but “by revoking Brennan’s security clearance, President Trump has
managed to turn Brennan from an embarrassment into a martyr.” According to
Thiessen, “revoking Brennan’s security clearance has not hurt Brennan. To
the contrary, Trump has rescued Brennan from his own partisan hackery and
given him an even greater platform from which to spew his bile. Indeed, the
president admitted as much on Friday, saying, ‘If anything, I’m giving him
a bigger voice.’” Thiessen concludes “Yes, Mr. President, you are – and
that is a big mistake.”

        *Professor Argues Not All Decisions To Revoke Security Clearances
Are Political. *Writing at Politico Magazine
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a1-943&t=c>
(8/21), Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors
and an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of
Law, emphasizes that many security clearance revocations are not for
political reasons and when the media frames it as such, “it is deeply
harmful to actual whistleblowers.”
EPA Proposes To Scale Back Clean Power Plan.

The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a2-794&t=c>
(8/21, Knickmeyer, Borenstein) reports that the EPA “moved to dismantle
another major piece of President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy on
Tuesday, proposing to dramatically scale back restrictions on
climate-changing emissions from coal-fired power plants even as it
acknowledged that could lead to more premature deaths and serious
illnesses.” According to the AP, the “plan broadly increases the authority
given states to decide how and how much to regulate coal power plants.”
Bill Wehrum, head of the EPA’s air office, “said the administration rejects
any suggestion the agency has a broad legal duty to combat climate change
through regulation of power grids or promotion of cleaner energy,”
according to the AP.

        According to the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a3-a5e&t=c>
(8/21, Eilperin), the EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy rule, “which the
president will tout at a roundtable in Charleston, W.Va., this evening,
represents the administration’s most ambitious proposal yet to bolster the
nation’s coal industry.” The Post says “one of the measure’s biggest
impacts could be on public health, since it would allow coal-fired plants
to run longer if they became more efficient, which could increase the total
amount of soot and smog-forming pollutants they emit. The EPA projects that
if finalized, the rule could lead to between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths
each year compared to the Obama-era rule.”

        Under the headline “E.P.A. Unveils New Coal Pollution Rules. In The
Fine Print: More Deaths,” the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a4-2f6&t=c>
(8/21, Friedman) reports that “the hundreds of pages of technical analysis
that accompany the new proposal indicate that emissions would grow under
the plan. Compared to the Obama-era plan, the analysis says, ‘implementing
the proposed rule is expected to increase emissions of carbon dioxide and
the level of emissions of certain pollutants in the atmosphere that
adversely affect human health.’” The Times also points out that the
analysis “includes a section called ‘foregone’ climate and human health
benefits,” which the Times says means that “instead of listing the health
gains of the Trump plan...it is instead describing the effect of the Trump
plan as benefits lost.”
Undocumented Immigrant Arrested In Death Of Iowa College Student.

All three broadcast networks aired reports on the arrest of Cristhian
Bahena Rivera in the disappearance of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts.
On ABC World News Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a5-c27&t=c>
(8/21, story 5, 2:05, Muir), Alex Perez reported that authorities are
charging Rivera, “who investigators say is an undocumented immigrant, with
first degree murder.” Rivera led authorities “to her body.” Rick Rahn, Iowa
Division Of Criminal Investigation: “She was found in a corn field, and
there were corn stalks placed over the top of her.” Perez: “The student was
last spotted going for a run July 18. Rivera allegedly followed, and
abducted her 10 miles away.”

        On the CBS Evening News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a6-aab&t=c>
(8/21, story 5, 2:40, Glor), Adriana Diaz reported, “Investigators say
Rivera worked and lived in the area for years. They wouldn’t release a
motive or any information about how Tibbetts was killed. More than a dozen
FBI agents helped in the search.” On NBC Nightly News[image: Image removed
by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a7-a06&t=c>
(8/21, story 4, 2:10, Holt), Ron Mott reported, “Officials say they had
fielded more than 4,000 tips, and the investigation was emotionally
difficult. ... An autopsy to determine how Mollie Tibbetts died is
scheduled” for Wednesday. The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a8-50f&t=c>
(8/21, Wootson) reports that authorities said the 24-year-old Rivera “was
an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been living in the United
States for at least four years.”

        The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0a9-6fc&t=c>
(8/21, Athey) reports in a brief item that Vice President Pence tweeted
about Tibbetts’ death and the arrest. Pence tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0aa-1b8&t=c>,
“Heartbroken by the news about Mollie Tibbetts. Mollie was an amazing young
woman and we are praying for her parents, brothers & friends in this time
of unimaginable grief….” then added
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ab-594&t=c>,
“We commend the swift action by local, state, & federal investigators
working in Iowa in apprehending an illegal immigrant, who’s now charged
with first-degree murder. Now, justice will be served. We will never forget
Mollie Tibbetts.”

        *Immigration Attorney Says First Lady’s Parents Received No Special
Treatment. *The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ac-c08&t=c>
(8/21, Bonn) reports, “Michael Wildes, the immigration lawyer representing
first lady Melania Trump and her parents, contends that they were given no
special treatment in their process to become U.S. citizens.” Wildes said in
an interview, “They were treated like no other different person, and it’s
just the politics of the day unfortunately. The dialogue has deteriorated
on immigration, and it’s our job as lawyers who toil in the fields – and
I’m a second-generation immigration lawyer – to make sure the government is
pointed in the right direction.”

        *Pentagon Reverses Removal Of Immigrant Reservists. *The Washington
Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ad-14c&t=c>
(8/21, Horton) reports, “The Army on Monday reinstated dozens of immigrant
reservists who sought citizenship through military enlistment, reversing a
decision that has affected more than a hundred foreign-born recruits amid a
lawsuit contending some dismissals were unfair and given without cause.”
The Post calls the “reversal” the Army’s “latest concession in a barrage of
court filings that claim the recent discharge of immigrant recruits
violated Army policy and potentially violated due process guaranteed in the
Constitution.”

        *Coulter Slams Trump’s Deal-Making Abilities On Immigration.
*The Washington
Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ae-416&t=c>
(8/21, Scarry) reports in a brief item that “conservative commentator Ann
Coulter, once a diehard supporter of President Trump,” now says Trump
“isn’t the supreme dealmaker he claimed to be.” In an interview, “Coulter
said specifically on immigration policy and his promise to build a wall on
the Mexican border that Trump has fallen well short of his personally
reinforced image as a master broker.” Coulter said, “Wow, I’ve never seen
such a bad dealmaker.”

        *Trump Credited For Insisting On Deportation Of Nazi Guard Living
In Queens. *Much of the coverage of the Administration’s deportation to
Germany of Nazi concentration camp guard Jakiw Palij, who lived in the US
since 1949 and became a citizen in 1957, highlights the role played by
President Trump. The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0af-476&t=c>
(8/21, Sisak, Rising, Herschaft) reports that US Ambassador to Germany
Richard Grenell said Trump “made it very clear” he wanted Palij deported.
The AP adds that Eli Rosenbaum, “the former head of the U.S. office
investigating accused Nazi war criminals, said Palij’s removal ‘is a
landmark victory in the U.S. government’s decades-long quest to achieve a
measure of justice and accountability on behalf of the victims of Nazi
inhumanity.’” On NBC Nightly News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b0-6ff&t=c>
(8/21, story 6, 1:40, Holt), Andrea Mitchell said it took “so long to
deport him despite years of protests outside his home” because, “the White
House and civilian Nazi hunters say, nobody wanted him back.”

        According to the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b1-45d&t=c>
(8/21, Bennhold), “American officials and diplomats had long urged Germany
to take in Mr. Palij, but the efforts appear to have intensified under
President Trump,” who “regularly raised the issue in meetings with
Chancellor Angela Merkel.” The Times says Grenell has made the case “a
priority in recent weeks.” Likewise, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b2-db9&t=c>
(8/21, Noack) says, “Palij’s deportation appears to have been the result of
pressure by the Trump administration, rather than by German authorities.”
The Post adds that Grenell “indicated in a briefing call on Tuesday that
Trump had taken a personal interest in Palij’s case, which likely made the
difference. ‘I don’t know how he learned of the case, but it was very clear
that he knew this individual as a Nazi guard and wanted him out of the
United States,’ Grenell said.”

        In its lead segment Tuesday morning, Ainsley Earhardt of Fox News’
Fox & Friends
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b3-4be&t=c>
(8/21) reported that “ICE agents following orders from President Trump
arrest[ed] the 95-year-old...at his Queens house.” Steve Doocy commented,
“The extraordinary thing is we knew this guy was a Nazi guard at that
prison camp. For 25 years, we tried to get rid of him, and it was just
yesterday ICE finally came calling.” Rob Schmitt went on to report that
Trump “task[ed] US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell with ensuring
Palij’s deportation was at the top of his list when he arrived at his post
in Berlin.” Schmitt added, “How about that, guys? This was an ambassador
whose confirmation was delayed for so long...he finally gets into the post
and this is a big story.” Doocy added, “One of the things the President
said to [Grenell] when he went over, he said, ‘Try to make sure that that
guy gets deported.’”

        On ABC’s Good Morning America
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b4-721&t=c>
(8/21), Tara Palmeri reported that for many years, Palij’s continued
presence in the US sparked “outrage from the surrounding community,” but
now he has been “deported to Germany at the direct order of President
Trump.” Palmeri added that the President is said to have become “fixated on
the case, ordering his new ambassador to Germany to make his deportation a
top priority.” Palmeri said Palij’s deportation is “drawing rare praise
from Trump from top Democrats.” Senate Minority Leader Schumer was shown
welcoming the deportation, but not mentioning Trump. NBC’s Today[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b5-493&t=c>
(8/21) and CBS This Morning
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b6-c6b&t=c>
(8/21) both covered the deportation in brief segments that did mention the
roles played by Trump and ICE.

        The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b7-97f&t=c>
(8/21, Enjeti) says Trump “played an integral role in deporting” Palij.
According to the Daily Caller, “The president’s interest in Palij’s case
stems from the years of New York City tabloid coverage it has garnered over
the years.” The Daily Caller goes on to report that Grenell, “acting upon
the order of the president, vigorously highlighted Palij’s case to German
authorities with the new argument that it had a moral obligation to accept
him because the former SS guard committed his crime for the German
government at the time.”

        In his Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b8-588&t=c>
(8/21, Von Drehle) column, David Von Drehle praises the Administration for
deporting Palij, which he adds was done “to bipartisan acclaim.” Von Drehle
concludes “it is proper that [Palij] should pay, even at this late date,
some price for his actions. Complicity in the Holocaust was never his only
choice. Many Ukrainians chose to suffer in German POW camps rather than
inflict suffering on others.”

        *WPost: White House Sought To “Play Up” ICE’s Role In Nazi’s
Deportation. *Under the headline “Seeking Political Advantage, Trump And
GOP Play Up Role Of ICE In Deportation Of Nazi,” the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0b9-761&t=c>
(8/21, Barrett) says “Trump and Republicans...swiftly sought to turn the
overnight deportation of an alleged Nazi collaborator from U.S. soil into a
rallying cry for Immigration and Customs Enforcement – the agency that
physically removed him – and a political cudgel against Democrats who have
questioned its mission.” The Post adds the White House announcement about
the deportation “trumpeted the role played by ICE, whose agents Trump had
touted as ‘heroes’ at an event the day before,” and the Republican National
Committee “pointed reporters to the fact that Palij...had settled in the
congressional district in Queens, N.Y., that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is
seeking to represent.” However, the Post states that, “in reality, ICE had
little to do with the timing of Palij’s removal.”
Collins: Kavanaugh Considers Roe v Wade “Settled Law.”

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ba-c58&t=c>
(8/21, Cornwell) reports that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) says Supreme Court
nominee Brett Kavanaugh told her that he “agrees with the court’s Chief
Justice John Roberts that the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized
abortion is settled law.” The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0bb-e3a&t=c>
(8/21, Andrews, Tau) reports Collins said she and Kavanaugh “talked about
whether he considered Roe to be settled law.” Collins added, “He said that
he agreed with what Justice Roberts said at his nomination hearing, in
which he said that it was settled law.” The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0bc-fd6&t=c>
(8/21, Viebeck, Pogrund) reports that Collins “has not said whether she
will support Kavanaugh, but she has also declined to offer strong criticism
of” him. The Post adds that “several signs point to the likelihood that
Collins will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.” According to the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0bd-c3c&t=c>
(8/21, Stolberg), the votes of Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) “are
critical to his confirmation,” though Collins’ “statement on the matter may
say less about Judge Kavanaugh’s views on abortion than her ultimate vote,
which appears to be leaning toward ‘yes.’ She had already called him a
‘clearly’ qualified nominee.”

        However, The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0be-fef&t=c>
(8/21, Axelrod) reports a Public Policy Polling survey of 529 Maine voters
“found that 49 percent of Maine voters who responded do not think Collins
should vote to confirm Kavanaugh. In addition, 47 percent of the total
respondents said they’d be less likely to vote for her reelection in 2020
if she helped elevate Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. That number grows to
53 percent if Kavanaugh hypothetically votes to overturn Roe v. Wade while
on the high court.”

        *Democrats Criticize Kavanaugh For Not Providing Assurances To
Protect Abortion Precedents. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0bf-8d0&t=c>
(8/21, Cornwell) reports Senate Minority Leader Schumer “said Kavanaugh
would not give any assurance that either Roe, which legalized abortion, or
a later case called Planned Parenthood v. Casey that reaffirmed Roe, were
correctly decided. Nor would Kavanaugh say whether he thought the
healthcare law passed under former President Barack Obama, the Affordable
Care Act, was constitutional, Schumer told reporters.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c0-b66&t=c>
(8/21, Swoyer) reports that at a press conference Tuesday, Sen. Tammy
Duckworth (D-IL) said, “My heart breaks when I think about how Kavanaugh’s
confirmation would hurt expecting and new moms too, who would have a harder
time getting access to the maternity care that they need.” Sen. Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-NY) added, “This judge will undermine the ability of women of
color, particularly, to survive. ... The intention is to take away women’s
rights.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c1-d94&t=c>
(8/21, Keller) reports Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) during an appearance
on CNN on Tuesday “said that he thinks a ‘smelly special interest network’
of dark money was involved in...Kavanaugh’s nomination process.” According
to The Hill, Whitehouse also “listed off a variety of things he finds
suspicious.”

        Meanwhile, the Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c2-48d&t=c>
(8/21, Muñoz) reports Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) met with Kavanaugh this
week, and he said in a statement, “I’m already very troubled by the Supreme
Court’s recent decisions stripping rights from Ohioans, and I have serious
concerns about some of Judge Kavanaugh’s rulings and positions on health
care for Ohioans with pre-existing conditions, and the rights of Ohio
workers, women, and consumers.” Brown also “said there is more to
‘carefully consider’ before committing to a vote.”
McCaskill Questions CMS’ Verma About ACA Pre-Existing Conditions Suit.

The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c3-9a1&t=c>
(8/21, Sullivan) reports that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), “who is facing
a tough reelection race this year, used a Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to press” CMS Administrator Seema
Verma about a lawsuit challenging pre-existing condition protections under
the Affordable Care Act. McCaskill said, “There does not seem to be any
sense of urgency about the fact that this lawsuit is moving its way through
the courts and could blow up all of the protections.” Verma said “that she
supports protections for people with pre-existing conditions and that if
the lawsuit backed by the administration against ObamaCare is successful
she would work with Congress to try to reinstate them.” She declined to
comment on the specifics of the lawsuit.

        *Maryland To Announce Approval Of Federal Waiver To Lower Premium
Costs. *The Baltimore Sun
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c4-2a4&t=c>
(8/21, Dresser) reports that Maryland officials will announce Wednesday
that the Trump Administration “has approved a federal waiver that is
expected to stave off increases in health insurance costs for more than
200,000 Marylanders.” A spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) “confirmed
plans for a Wednesday announcement but would not provide details.”

        *Politico: “Medicare For All” Hasn’t Proven Successful In
Democratic House Primaries. *Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c5-474&t=c>
(8/21, Demko) reports that while “most of the prominent Democrats eyeing
2020 presidential bids...champion the idea of ‘Medicare for all,’
suggesting it’s become almost a litmus test for the party’s base,” the
issue has played little role in Democratic congressional primaries. Many
candidates who made it “a centerpiece of their campaigns in key districts
this year lost their primaries,” and “just 16 percent of Democrats
identified support for a national health care plan as the No. 1 issue in
determining their vote,” according to a July Kaiser Family Foundation
survey. Democratic pollster John Anzalone said, “Medicare for all just
isn’t one of those litmus tests for Democratic primary voters. Voters are
smart enough to know that Medicare for all isn’t going to happen right now,
or maybe ever.”
WPost A1: White Nationalist Publisher Attended Birthday Party In Kudlow’s
Home.

In a front-page article, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c6-186&t=c>
(8/21, A1, Costa) reports that National Economic Council Director Kudlow
last weekend hosted Peter Brimelow, “the publisher of a website that serves
as a platform for white nationalism,” in his home. Brimelow, who was
attending “a birthday bash for Kudlow,” was “once a well-connected figure
in mainstream conservative circles, writing for Dow Jones and National
Review,” but “has become a zealous promoter of white-identity politics on
Vdare.com, the anti-immigration website that he founded in 1999.” On
Tuesday, Kudlow said Brimelow is someone he has known “forever,” since
their days working in financial journalism, but he “expressed regret when
he was [told] details of Brimelow’s promotion of white nationalists on
Vdare.com.” Said Kudlow, “If I had known this, we would never have invited
him. ... I’m disappointed and saddened to hear about it.”

        *UNC Chapel Hill Protestors Topple Jim Crow-Era Statue. *The Wall
Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c7-d2f&t=c>
(8/21, Bauerlein) reports that security has been increased at Confederate
monuments across North Carolina after protesters at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill toppled the Jim Crow-era Silent Sam statue honoring
students who fought for the Confederacy. NBC Nightly News[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c8-96e&t=c>
(8/21, story 7, 1:25, Holt) reported that “a criminal investigation is
underway” over the toppling of the statue. NBC (Gutierrez) added that while
university officials “acknowledged the statute was divisive,” they “said
state law prevented them from removing it.” The CBS Evening News[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0c9-d62&t=c>
(8/21, story 8, 0:20, Glor) reported that university officials “condemned”
the protesters’ actions.
CA50 Rep. Hunter, Wife Indicted For Campaign Finance Violations.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ca-8af&t=c>
(8/21, Lamothe) reports that the Justice Department on Tuesday charged CA50
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) and his wife, Margaret, “with using more than
$250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations, theater tickets and
other personal expenses.” The indictment charging the couple “details how
they allegedly used campaign money to live beyond their means, funding
trips to Italy, Hawaii and other places, as well as school tuition, dental
work and theater tickets.” According to the DOJ, “the couple falsely
described their purchases in FEC filings as ‘campaign travel,’ ‘dinner with
volunteers/contributors,’ or by using other seemingly innocent monikers”
The Los Angeles Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0cb-2b7&t=c>
(8/21, Wire, Mai-duc) says the Hunters are to be arraigned Thursday morning
on charges of “conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States,
wire fraud, falsification of records and prohibited use of campaign
contributions.”

        In a profile of Hunter, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0cc-eba&t=c>
(8/22, Swenson) reports that the “indictment represents the implosion of a
once-mighty Southern California political dynasty. Hunter came to politics
through his father, Duncan L. Hunter Sr., a powerful, former California
congressman” who served “14 terms in Congress, and even made his own
quixotic run for the presidency in 2008. Both father and son defined their
politics with strong conservative values, including an unflinching support
of the military.”

        The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0cd-6a0&t=c>
(8/21, Stolberg) reports that Hunter is “the second Republican congressman
to be indicted this month.” NY27 Rep. Chris Collins (R) “was indicted on
insider trading charges, and announced days later that he had suspended his
re-election campaign. ... The back-to-back indictments are all but certain
to give ammunition to Democrats, who have been promising to clean up
corruption in Washington if voters give them control of the House.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ce-81f&t=c>
(8/21, Cowan) also reports on the indictment.

        *Despite Indictment, Hunter Will Remain On November Ballot. *The
Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0cf-7be&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) reported that Hunter will remain on the ballot despite the
indictment. A spokesman for California’s Secretary of State said in a
statement, “There exists no process in California Elections Code for Duncan
Hunter to remove his name from the November ballot.” The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d0-39c&t=c>
(8/21, Blood, Watson) reports, “The 48-page indictment brings a jolt of
uncertainty into the contest, in a year when Democrats have targeted a
string of Republican-held House seats across the state. ‘People disregard a
lot of political issues, but the word indictment catches their attention,’
Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said. In the
strongly Republican district, ‘Hunter is probably still the favorite, but
not as overwhelmingly as he was before,’ he added.”

        CQ Roll Call (DC)
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d1-d37&t=c>
(8/21, Bowman) reported, “Democrats were already targeting Hunter this
election cycle due to his legal troubles, but viewed the seven GOP-held
seats in California that Hillary Clinton won as better pickup
opportunities.” State Democratic Party chief Eric Bauman now expects the
CA50 “to move from a second tier to a first tier of Democratic targets in
California.” Ex-Obama Administration official Ammar Campa-Najjar (D), who
is challenging Hunter, “has already raised nearly $1.1 million in his
campaign, while Hunter has raised a total of $856,000. Hunter had a slight
cash on hand advantage at the end of the second fundraising quarter.”

        *Ryan Strips Hunter’s Committee Assignments. *The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d2-a22&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) reported that House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that
Hunter will removed from his committee assignments following his
indictment. Ryan said in a statement, “The charges against Rep. Hunter are
deeply serious. The Ethics Committee deferred its investigation at the
request of the Justice Department. ... Now that he has been indicted, Rep.
Hunter will be removed from his committee assignments pending the
resolution of this matter.” Hunter sits on the Armed Services,
Transportation and Infrastructure, and Education and the Workforce
Committees.

        *Pelosi Calls For Hunter’s Resignation. *In a separate story, The
Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d3-901&t=c>
(8/21, Burke) reported that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on
Hunter to resign. Pelosi said in a statement that the charges against
Hunter are “evidence of the rampant culture of corruption among Republicans
in Washington today.” Pelosi added, “Once again, one of President Trump’s
earliest supporters in Congress has broken the public trust and abused his
position to enrich himself and his family. ... Speaker Ryan must
immediately call on Congressman Hunter to resign, and affirm that no one is
above the law.”
Trump Stumps For Manchin Challenger Morrisey In West Virginia.

ABC News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d4-0ff&t=c>
(8/21, Mallin) reports online that President Trump on Tuesday “took the
stage at a campaign rally in West Virginia ready to rile up his thousands
of supporters in the audience” and “gin up support for” state Attorney
General Patrick Morrisey (R), who is challenging Sen. Joe Manchin (D).
The Charleston
(WV) Gazette-Mail
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d5-1a1&t=c>
(8/22, Zuckerman) reports that Trump “framed a vote for Morrisey as a vote
for Republican control, more than just a vote for the man. ‘He does not
stop,’ Trump said of the attorney general. ‘When you cast your ballot for
Congress in November, you aren’t just voting for a candidate. You’re voting
for which party controls the House and which party controls the Senate.’” West
Virginia MetroNews
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d6-6b3&t=c>
(8/21, Thomas) reports that Trump, “who considered Manchin for cabinet
positions, said Manchin has not done anything for the state while in public
office. ‘He voted against tax cuts, he voted against repeal and replace. He
votes against the things that we want, and he votes against the people of
West Virginia. You can’t do that,’ he said. ‘You know, Joe opposed the wall
and he opposed the travel ban.’”

        The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d7-21d&t=c>
(8/21, Davis, Rogers) reports that during the rally, held in Charleston,
Trump invoked “fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a
weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as
the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving
members of his inner circle.” Trump warned, “A vote for any Democrat in
November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our
borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals.” He added,
“They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our
communities.”

        However, WVAH-TV
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d8-cd6&t=c>
Charleston, WV (8/21, 10:01 p.m. EDT) reported that “much of Trump’s”
address “focused on successes so far in his presidency but still pushing
his future agenda on coal, creating jobs and getting a few specific West
Virginia Republicans to Washington, D.C.” Trump “highlighted his successes
including four million new jobs, 4,000 in the manufacturing sector.” Trump:
“We’ll be close to 600,000 very soon. We have companies pouring in to our
country. They are coming back. These are companies that left. They are
coming back to Michigan. They are coming back to West Virginia.” WVAH said
Trump “praised the tax cuts, building a stronger military and creating
better care for veterans but the greatest applause came with this
announcement.” Trump: “It’s happening. we are back. the coal industry is
back.” WBVA added that Trump “also took time to urge voters to” back
Morrisey’s bid.

        WBOY-TV
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0d9-e14&t=c>
Clarksburg, WV (8/21, 11:01 p.m. EDT) reported that Trump mentioned Manchin
“several times, saying that Manchin opposed the border wall and the travel
ban. The President also spoke about the nation’s brisk economy, saying that
industry including coal and steel have come back briskly with initiatives
like the Affordable Clean Energy rule.” WVNS-TV[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0da-4d5&t=c>
Bluefield, WV (8/21, 11:07 p.m. EDT) reported Trump “promised economic
prosperity and a stronger America, if people voted Republican.” Trump: “We
will make America strong again. We will make America safe again and we will
make America great again. Thank you, West Virginia.” West Virginia MetroNews
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0db-b93&t=c>
(8/21) says the visit was Trump’s sixth to West Virginia since taking
office and his first to Charleston since the presidential campaign ended.

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0dc-fce&t=c>
(8/21, Oprysko) reported that during the rally, Trump “managed to not stray
far from his script. ... Despite the cloud of Robert Mueller’s
investigation hanging over the event,” Trump “brought up the special
counsel’s inquiry just once, saying that the ‘fake news and the Russian
witch hunt’ mix to make a ‘a whole big combination,’ but avoiding mention
of the day’s developments. ‘Where is the collusion?’ he asked. ‘They are
still looking for collusion. Where is the collusion? Find some collusion.
We want to find the collusion.’” Similarly, USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0dd-c6f&t=c>
(8/21, Korte) reports that Trump “made only the most passing mention of the
political and legal troubles rapidly enveloping his presidency,” asserting
“there’s still no proof his campaign worked with Russian agents to win the
2016 presidential election.”

        CNN
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0de-a2e&t=c>
(8/21, Rocha, Wagner) reported on its website, “Trump talked about
immigration, the upcoming midterm elections and special counsel Robert
Mueller’s” probe, “but he never once mentioned Paul Manafort and Michael
Cohen.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0df-8d2&t=c>
(8/21, Boyer) reports that Trump backers at the rally “weren’t bothered in
the least...by the news that two of his former aides were convicted of
felonies earlier in the day.” During the “boisterous, packed rally at an
arena in Charleston, thousands of West Virginians hung on” Trump’s “every
word and cheered loudly for his pro-coal mining policies. Among them” was
Morrisey, who with Trump at his side, said, “We love you, Mr. President.” The
Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e0-70b&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) reported that Trump “railed against social media
censorship, declaring he would ‘rather have fake news than have
anybody...stopped and censored.’” The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e1-8e6&t=c>
(8/21, Samuels) also reported that Trump praised Gov. Jim Justice (R) as
“the largest, most beautiful man” and as “a great Republican.”

        Meanwhile, News Center (WV)
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e2-a2d&t=c>
(8/21, Baucher) reports the rally drew “demonstrators, including a group
from Wood County, who held a protest outside the Charleston Civic Center
focusing as much on Morrisey as on Trump.” According to News Center, the
protesters expressed “concerns about Morrisey’s support of changes in the
Affordable Care Act.”

        *Gordon Defeats Trump-Backed Friess In Wyoming GOP Gubernatorial
Primary. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e3-e72&t=c>
(8/22, Gruver) reports that state Treasurer Mark Gordon (R) on Tuesday won
the GOP gubernatorial primary, defeating several candidates, including
wealthy Republican donor Foster Friess (R), “by a comfortable margin
despite Friess’ national name recognition and last-minute endorsement from
President Donald Trump.” The other candidates in the GOP primary included
businessman Sam Galeotos (R) and attorney Harriet Hageman (R). Gordon will
face state Rep. Mary Thorne (D) in November’s election. The candidates are
vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Matt Mead (R). The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e4-cbd&t=c>
(8/21, Peters) reports that in choosing Gordon, Wyoming GOP voters “brushed
off...Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement,” rejecting “Friess, one of the
country’s biggest donors to conservative causes and a financial supporter
of the president’s.” The Times says, “It was a relatively rare loss for Mr.
Trump, who has taken great pride in endorsing candidates who have gone on
to win.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e5-a73&t=c>
(8/21, Bland) reports that Friess’ “defeat capped a day of political
misfortune for Trump, who was implicated in a conspiracy to violate
campaign finance laws by former attorney Michael Cohen and saw former
campaign chairman Paul Manafort convicted of fraud before Gordon snapped
the president’s recent streak of picking winners in Republican governor’s
primaries around the country. Gordon had 32 percent of the Republican
primary vote to Friess’ 26 percent when the Associated Press called the
primary with 91 percent of precincts reporting.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e6-1d1&t=c>
(8/21, Bernstein) reports that Gordon “is likely to become the next
governor when voters go to the polls during the general election in
November in Wyoming, a Republican stronghold.” Earlier in the day, Trump
had tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e7-28b&t=c>,
“To the incredible people of the Great State of Wyoming: Go VOTE TODAY for
Foster Friess – He will be a fantastic Governor! Strong on Crime, Borders &
2nd Amendment. Loves our Military & our Vets. He has my complete and total
Endorsement!”

        *Barrasso Wins Wyoming GOP Senate Primary. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e8-2d7&t=c>
(8/22, Gruver) reports that Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) defeated five
opponents, “including investor and Stanford University lecturer Dave Dodson
of Jackson Hole,” to win Wyoming’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday.
Dodson “put $1 million of his own money toward a campaign that questioned
Barrasso’s ties to corporate interests and Washington political insiders.”

        *Walker, Begich, Dunleavy To Battle In Three-Way Alaska Governor’s
Race. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0e9-08a&t=c>
(8/22) reports that ex-state Sen. Mike Dunleavy (R) on Tuesday won the GOP
gubernatorial primary, “setting the stage for what’s expected to be a
three-way fight for the office this fall” that will include Gov. Bill
Walker (I) and ex-Sen. Mark Begich (D). Walker is seeking reelection;
Begich faced just nominal opposition in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
The Anchorage
(AK) Daily News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ea-b4f&t=c>
(8/21, Zak, Hanlon) reports, “With 95 percent of the precincts counted,”
Dunleavy led his closest rival, ex-Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R), 62%-32%.
The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0eb-9bd&t=c>
(8/22, Bohrer) reports, “Some Democrats and independents worry that Begich
and Walker will split the vote and hand the race to Republicans. But Begich
has said he wouldn’t have gotten into the race if he didn’t think he could
win, and he and Walker have each been full-steam ahead with their
campaigns.”
Cancer Research
USPSTF Releases Updated Guidelines On Cervical Cancer Screening.

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ec-be3&t=c>
(8/21, Rapaport) reports the US Preventive Services Task Force issued new
guidelines
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ed-9b4&t=c>
published in JAMA regarding cervical cancer screening, suggesting that
“some women can get a test that looks for” human papilloma virus in order
to “reduce ‘false alarms’ that lead to invasive follow-up tests and
unnecessary treatment.” The task force recommends that screening should
begin for women age 21-29 with “a Pap test” every three years, which they
may continue from age 30 to 65, or “they can get screened every five years
with a test that looks for the high-risk types of HPV that cause cervical
cancer” or get both tests every five years. NBC News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ee-ac3&t=c>
(8/21) reports the new guidelines “are based on a now-solid body of
evidence showing that almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the
human papillomavirus.” Newsweek
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0ef-ee7&t=c>
(8/21, Spear) reports the USPSTF guidelines “say that women over 30 can
safely wait five years between cervical cancer screenings.” The Washington
Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f0-f40&t=c>
(8/21, Leonard) reports the new “recommendations reverse those issued in
2012 that recommended both tests at the same time for women between the
ages of 21 and 65.”

        HealthDay
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f1-499&t=c>
(8/21, Gordon) reports Dr. Douglas Owens, vice chair of the USPSTF, said,
“There are three good options for screening for cervical cancer in women 30
to 65. Our recommendation is that women have a conversation with their
clinician about which option is best for them.” MedPage Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f2-a9e&t=c>
(8/21, Bankhead) reports that the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and
American Society for Clinical Pathology “issued a joint statement, thanking
the USPSTF for including multiple screening options in the recommendations
and describing the task force guidance as ‘largely in line’ with their own
recommendations.”
Experimental Drug Vistusertib Can Shrink Tumors In Ovarian Cancer Patients.

Newsweek
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f3-29e&t=c>
(8/21, Gander) reports that UK-based researchers say they had developed a
new drug, vistusertib, that “can attack ovarian and lung cancers in
patients for whom other treatments have failed.” Newsweek says that “over
half of patients with ovarian cancer and over a third with lung cancer saw
their tumors shrink,” according to the study
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f4-219&t=c>
published in the Annals of Oncology.
Editorials/Op-Eds
New York Times.

*“A Climate Reckoning For Australia.”* The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2018082201biden&r=email-ad82&l=0f5-6ee&t=c>
(8/21) editorializes that with its “abundance of potential solar and tidal
power,” Australia “should be a global leader in battling climate change.”
Yet, the Times says, when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull succumbed to
“pressure from rebellious conservatives in his party” and “abandoned his
‘National Energy Guarantee’ and its modest effort to reduce energy
emissions,” he “to confirm Australia as a poster child for something
completely different, as reported by Damien Cave in The Times on Tuesday: a
political inability to enact sorely needed energy legislation because of
acute partisanship on addressing climate change and the influence of a coal
industry that accounts for more than a third of all global coal exports.”
The Times says Cave’s “description is utterly apt, for Australia as it is
for the United States, where President Trump has rashly pulled the United
States out of the Paris climate accord and has maliciously undercut
critical environmental regulations.”

        *“All The President’s Crooks.” *A New York Times
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(8/21) editorial highlights that “from the start of the Russia
investigation, President Trump has been working to discredit the work and
the integrity of the special counsel, Robert Mueller; praising men who are
blatant grifters, cons and crooks; insisting that he’s personally done
nothing wrong; and reminding us that he hires only the best people.” The
Times adds Tuesday was “an astonishing split-screen moment involving two of
those people.” According to the Times, “Only a complete fantasist – that
is, only President Trump and his cult – could continue to claim that this
investigation of foreign subversion of an American election, which has
already yielded dozens of other indictments and several guilty pleas, is a
‘hoax’ or ‘scam’ or ‘rigged witch hunt.’”

        *Bruni: First Lady Trying To Get Under Trump’s Skin. *Frank Bruni
writes in the New York Times
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(8/21) that the First Lady is “making the effort” to “get under [President
Trump’s] skin.” Citing her public comments against cyberbullying and her
announcement that she will make a solo trip to Africa, Bruni says she
“inches ever closer to open contempt for him. She finds increasingly clever
ways to show it. And it’s a perfect wedding of patriotism and payback for
all the humiliations that he has heaped on her.”
Washington Post.

“An Alleged Co-Conspirator In The White House.” The Washington Post
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(8/21) editorializes that despite his best efforts to downplay the
importance of Paul Manafort’s conviction or Michael Cohen’s plea deal,
“Trump cannot pretend these crimes did not occur or that they have nothing
to do with him. Neither can Congress.” The Post calls on Congress to “open
investigations into Mr. Trump’s role in the crime Mr. Cohen has admitted
to. It is far too soon to say where such inquiries would lead. But
legislators cannot in good conscience ignore an alleged co-conspirator in
the White House.”

        *“Want To Prevent School Shootings? Lock Up Guns.” *The Washington
Post
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(8/21) argues in an editorial that “many shootings by children could have
been prevented if adults had kept the firearms locked away,” a point that
was “detailed in a powerful report by The Post’s John Woodrow Cox and
Steven Rich.” The “analysis of 145 school shootings committed by children
since 1999 found that among the 105 cases in which the weapon’s source was
identified, 80 percent were taken from the child’s home or that of
relatives or friends.” However, the Post adds, “few states (the Giffords
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence counts 11) have laws concerning firearm
locking devices.”

        *“Stupid Decisions Are To Blame For Europe’s Record Measles Rate.” *A
Washington Post
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(8/21) editorial says the measles outbreak in Europe serves as “a warning
of the costs of ignorance, war and complacency.” The Post explains,
“Extensive research has disproved the fears of a link between vaccination
and autism, but ignorance and unfounded suspicions persist.” The Post
attributes Europe’s crisis and other recent measles outbreaks to
“unvaccinated Americans” and “foreigners bringing the virus to the United
States after becoming infected abroad.” The Post says vaccination fears are
now “driving Italy toward folly.” The Post warns that if the Italian Senate
votes to suspend “a requirement that parents provide proof of 10 routine
vaccinations when enrolling their children in nurseries or preschools,”
then even “more people will go without immunization. Some will die. It
should not be allowed to happen.”

        *Milbank: Georgia GOP Suppressing Black Votes Under Guise Of ADA
Compliance. *Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post
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(8/21) questions the motives of officials in Randolph County, Georgia, who
proposed closing seven of the county’s nine polling places because they are
not ADA compliant. Milbank says many who attended a public meeting last
week “expressed suspicion that the election officials’ motive was concern
for the disabled, rather than, say, suppressing African American voters,”
which may be “because voters in African American-majority Randolph went for
Hillary Clinton by 11 points,” and “in a county where there is negligible
public transportation and nearly a quarter of households don’t have a car,
eliminating 78 percent of polling places (including one where nearly 97
percent of voters are black) pretty much guarantees people won’t vote.”
Milbank calls the move “a flagrant example of the expansion of voter
suppression nationwide, aggravated by the Supreme Court’s 2013 weakening of
the Voting Rights Act.”

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