WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

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1/ The New York attorney general's office opened an investigation into three Trump Organization loans from Deutsche Bank, as well as Trump's failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills. New York AG Letitia James issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for loan applications, mortgages, lines of credit and other financing transactions in connection with the Trump International Hotel in Washington, the Trump National Doral outside Miami, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, as well as the unsuccessful purchase of the NFL team in 2014. The new inquiry was prompted by Michael Cohen's congressional testimony, who suggested that Trump had inflated his assets in financial statements and provided documents to back up his claims. The inquiry is a civil investigation, not a criminal one. (New York Times / Washington Post / Reuters / Bloomberg / ABC News / NBC News)

• One of Trump's closest political advisers: "We're not ready" for more investigations. David Bossie served as Trump's deputy campaign manager and has been counseling both the White House and congressional Republicans. (ABC News)

2/ The attorney who negotiated the hush-money payments on behalf of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal believes Trump could still be in legal danger for his alleged role in directing the efforts to buy their silence. Keith Davidson cited language used by prosecutors in Cohen's indictment, which alleged that Cohen was part of a criminal conspiracy, and said, "by definition, a conspiracy must involve more than one person – so who else could it be?" Davidson says he sat down with investigators for the special counsel for more than 15 hours, during which it "became clear" to him that prosecutors believe the hush-money payments were part of an effort to save Trump's presidential campaign, which would constitute a violation of campaign finance laws. (ABC News)

3/ Adam Schiff: Trump should be indicted when he leaves office for the crimes Michael Cohen was convicted of committing on his behalf. The chairman of the House intelligence committee said there's already sufficient evidence to support an indictment of Trump even before the conclusion of Robert Mueller's investigation, and that the Justice Department policy against indicting a siting president was "wrong." (NPR / Washington Post)

• There might be a second Mueller report. Since Mueller's appointment, he's been conducting a counterintelligence investigation, while "also" assessing whether any crimes were co...

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