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Tuesday, February 11, 2020
ABC Asking for Attacks Was a Lazy Way to Run a Debate
You knew it was going to be a long night when ABC's 
FOCUS: As Roger Stone Awaits Sentencing Trump Hints at Pardon
 11 February 20
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11 February 20
FOCUS: As Roger Stone Awaits Sentencing Trump Hints at Pardon
Igor Derysh, Salon
Derysh writes: "President Donald Trump lashed out at federal prosecutors who recommended that his oldest political adviser, Roger Stone, serve up to nine years in prison after his conviction in former special counsel Bob Mueller's investigation."
Igor Derysh, Salon
Derysh writes: "President Donald Trump lashed out at federal prosecutors who recommended that his oldest political adviser, Roger Stone, serve up to nine years in prison after his conviction in former special counsel Bob Mueller's investigation."
“This is a horrible and very unfair situation,” Trump tweeted at 1 a.m. "Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
resident Donald Trump lashed out at federal prosecutors who recommended that his oldest political adviser, Roger Stone, serve up to nine years in prison after his conviction in former special counsel Bob Mueller's investigation.
Trump called the Department of Justice's recommendation that Stone serve seven to nine years behind bars "disgraceful."
"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," Trump tweeted just after 1 a.m. ET Tuesday morning. "The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
Stone was convicted in November of making false statements to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in connection to his contacts with WikiLeaks, which released emails stolen from Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign by Russian military hackers during the 2016 campaign.
He joins former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, Manafort's deputy Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos as Trump aides convicted in Mueller's probe into the campaign's ties to Russia.
Prosecutors said in a 26-page sentencing memo Monday that Stone's crimes call for a sentence of 87 to 108 months in prison.
"Roger Stone obstructed Congress' investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, lied under oath and tampered with a witness," prosecutors said in the filing. "When his crimes were revealed by the indictment in this case, he displayed contempt for this court and the rule of law."
Prosecutors said during trial that Stone tried to hide his attempts to coordinate the release of the Clinton emails with Wikileaks. Stone also tried to threaten his friend Randy Credico to stop him from testifying to Congress, according to the Justice Department.
Stone "made repeated efforts to obtain information from an organization called WikiLeaks that could help the Trump campaign," the filing said, detailing his attempts to contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his public claims of inside information about upcoming releases.
"During this time period, Stone regularly communicated with senior Trump campaign officials," who "believed Stone was providing them with non-public information about WikiLeaks' plans" and "viewed Stone as the Trump campaign's access point to WikiLeaks."
Stone later lied to Congress about his efforts, prosecutors said.
"Stone's false statements about documents had a significant impact on the committee's investigation," the filing said, and prevented others from submitting evidence to investigators.
The filing went on to detail Stone's defiance of a gag order issued in the case as he sought to raise money for his legal defense.
"Foreign election interference is the 'most deadly adversar[y] of republican government,'" it said, quoting Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Papers No. 68. "The House Intelligence Committee that Stone obstructed was examining allegations that 'the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, sought to sow discord in American society and undermine our faith in the democratic process.' . . . It is against this backdrop that Stone's crimes — his obstruction, lies and witness tampering — must be judged . . . Stone chose — consciously, repeatedly and flagrantly — to obstruct and interfere with the search for the truth on an issue of vital importance to all Americans."
Many observers predicted that Trump could pardon Stone or commute his sentence after his late-night diatribe.
"While you were sleeping, the president was teeing up another potential pardon for another criminal ally," The Washington Post's Aaron Blake tweeted.
"Either he's gearing up to pardon this crony / criminal," CNN legal analyst Elie Honig added, "or he's getting ready to deploy [Attorney General Bill] Barr against perceived politics enemies. Or both."
After Trump reacted to his impeachment acquittal by purging his administration of officials that testified against him, national security attorney Bradley Moss predicted that the paperwork to commute Stone's sentence and any sentence that Flynn gets "likely is already drafted."
FOCUS: Pete Buttigieg's Policy Director Has Been Traveling the County for Months to Meet With "Investors" in His Campaign
11 February 20
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Founder, Reader Supported News
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11 February 20
FOCUS: Pete Buttigieg's Policy Director Has Been Traveling the County for Months to Meet With "Investors" in His Campaign
Ryan Grim, The Intercept
Grim writes: "The presidential campaign of former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has taken the unusual step of sending its national policy director, Sonal Shah, on the road. For the past several months, she has been headlining high-dollar fundraisers across the country, according to a slew of invitations obtained from a variety of sources."
Ryan Grim, The Intercept
Grim writes: "The presidential campaign of former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has taken the unusual step of sending its national policy director, Sonal Shah, on the road. For the past several months, she has been headlining high-dollar fundraisers across the country, according to a slew of invitations obtained from a variety of sources."
It’s common for campaigns that rely on wealthy donors to lean on surrogates and senior officials to buttress their fundraising operations, but sending the aide in charge of crafting policy on a tour of American mansions is an unusual approach and wipes out the line between policymaking and solicitation of campaign contributions. Almost all of the invitations typically tout the role of Shah, a veteran of both Google and Goldman Sachs, as the campaign’s national policy director.
The news of Shah’s intimate involvement in Buttigieg’s fundraising comes as his campaign is under fire from both Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for his reliance on wealthy donors to power his campaign (see, especially, the wine cave). Buttigieg has argued that Democrats would be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs if they refused the support of the superrich. But Buttigieg is not just a passive recipient of big money; he devotes a significant amount of time and energy to soliciting it — in part by putting his chief policy adviser in the room with high-dollar donors.
Sanders and Warren have argued that relying on wealthy donors blunts the ability of Democrats to go directly after President Donald Trump’s corruption. On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Warren argued that “the coalition of billionaires is not exactly what’s going carry us over the top.”
“Last count, he has about 40 billionaires who are contributing to his campaign, the CEOs of the large pharmaceutical industries, the insurance companies, and so forth,” Sanders told “Face the Nation,” referring to Buttigieg. “It matters enormously. That is precisely the problem with American politics.”
The Buttigieg campaign has been sensitive to the charge that he is overly reliant on big money, and has urged its small-dollar donors to give in increasingly small numbers to drive down the . average contribution amount. Shah’s months-long road trip is another indication, however, of just how significant high-dollar giving is to his campaign.
In a statement from spokesperson Sean Savett, the campaign did not directly address Shah’s close involvement in fundraising effort.
We are proud that more than 800,000 Americans have donated to our campaign and the only promise that any of them will ever get is that Pete will use their donations to defeat Donald Trump. We don’t agree with all of our supporters on every issue and what guides our policies is what’s best for America. Pete is from a town that was ravaged by corporate greed and he’s proposed a bold, progressive agenda, which includes holding bad actors accountable and paying for our plans with higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans who can afford it. The stakes in this election are clear and stark and we can’t go into this fight with one hand tied behind our backs. That’s why whether you can give $3 or $300, whether you are a Democrat, Independent or Republican, we welcome you to our campaign and won’t turn you away if you’re ready to help rid us of Donald Trump.
Shah’s background positions her well to connect with the high-net-worth individuals within the Democratic Party that are powering Buttigieg’s bid and are concerned about income inequality, climate change, health disparities, or other social inequities. While she was a top official at both Goldman Sachs and Google before joining the Obama administration — spanning the two dominant elements of the corporate wing of the party, Wall Street and Silicon Valley — she worked in the divisions of those firms publicly dedicated to doing social good. At Goldman, she designed environmental strategy. At Google, she did global development. More recently, she became founding executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation.
The attempt to marshal corporate resources in the service of society is in line with the Buttigieg approach to economic policy and politics, which aims to leave the system largely untouched but divert some resources toward charitable efforts and social and technological innovation.
The high-dollar fundraisers are often organized around lofty themes, such as the one scheduled for February 21: a “conversation about economic equity and justice” at an undisclosed Baltimore location. Shah’s co-host that evening will be Chike Aguh, billed on the invite as the campaign’s policy adviser responsible for its Douglass Plan and the “Future of Work.” The Douglass Plan is the campaign’s effort at outreach to the black community and was rolled out with claims of support from high-profile black leaders in South Carolina who had told the campaign that they did not want to be listed as endorsers.
The earliest invite obtained by The Intercept dates to October 2, and there have been at least 22 additional events held since then, with Shah serving either as solo host or, occasionally, co-hosting with another Buttigieg aide. Top-level access to the events costs a maximum contribution of $2,800.
All told, Shah has been meeting with high-level donors on at least a weekly basis throughout the fall and winter, whether for pancakes in Newton; cocktails in Tulsa, Austin, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, or Manhattan; lunch in Chicago; or video calls with Shah that investors can buy their way into.
The Buttigieg campaign is in the habit of referring to donations as “investments.” The RSVP for many of the fundraisers goes to the email address
investment@peteforamerica.com. The fundraising team’s titles similarly suggest that there is a return for money invested in the campaign. Tom Strong-Grinsell, for instance, is the campaign’s “regional investment director,” handling New York. Swati Mylavarapu, a Silicon Valley tech executive and startup investor, is the campaign’s “national investment chair.” Anthony Mercurio, a Hillary Clinton alum, is “national investment director.” (Mylavarapu and Shah joined forces for at least one San Francisco fundraiser, a January 26 event called “Chefs for Pete,” with food by chef Alice Waters.)
The link between “investing” in a campaign and the policy it advocates for is precisely the argument Sanders has made against Buttigieg. “When you have the heads of large pharmaceutical companies contributing to your campaign, you are not going to aggressively deal with the fact that, in some cases, we pay 10 times for the same exact drugs as our friends in Canada or in Europe pay. You’re not going to take on the collusion and the corruption of the drug companies who are ripping us off.”
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