Outside the Beltway

Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in again… [update: x2]

Why would the Trump team release a document that casts them in such a bad light?

Running down the latest “known knowns” with just a bit of analysis

It’s complicated, hard to prove, and politically fraught.

The former President and his supporters are crying “weaponization of the justice system.”

The 45th President was a psychopath.

Two hundred-odd people have pled or been found guilty. One has been acquitted.

A bizarre case of bureaucratic ineptitude.

Credulous reports notwithstanding, there’s more to the story.

Jo Rae Perkins may be a nut, but she won a four-person primary.

Only the best people.

A book out today makes an odd case.

A newly released report leaked from inside the British Government notes that a hard Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the British economy.

Well, of course they are.

A perfectly reasonable initiative with a significant downside.

Findings of “foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct” were dismissed.

The legendary figure was in charge of strategic forecasting at the Pentagon for decades.

For the second time in a week, reports indicate that the President intervened to get a family member a security clearance.

President Trump personally overrode the objections of security officials, the White House Counsel, and the Chief of Staff to make sure his son-in-law got a security clearance.

Critics on both the Left and the Right rightly see an injustice here but the US Supreme Court allowed it to happen.

Federal employees deemed “essential” missed a paycheck yesterday in violation of US labor law.

Citing substantial cooperation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is recommending no jail time for former Trump associate Michael Flynn.

CNN fires back in the Administration’s ongoing war with the news media.

A Federal Judge in Maryland has ruled that discovery can proceed in a case alleging that President Trump has taken payments from outside sources in violation of the Constitution

President Trump wants Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department to investigate the anonymous Op-Ed published earlier this week even though there doesn’t appear to have been a crime committed.

My latest for The National Interest is out.

The former CIA Director has been stripped of his access to classified information after repeatedly criticizing the President.

In what appears to be a move based purely on vindictiveness, President Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, who used to be a Trump favorite, is out with a book that makes sensationalistic claims about the Trump Administration. The real story, though, is what she has on tape and how she got it.

Based on what can only be described as pure vindictiveness, the President is apparently planning on revoking security clearances of former officials who have been outspoken against the Administration and its policies.

A man who had been identified as an assailant at last year’s Charlottesville rally and apparent member of a white supremacist organization has been dismissed by defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

It’s more complicated than one might think.

A long-overdue overhaul of the way the United States vets those who access classified information is underway.

Americans actings as agents for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been working hard to manipulate the President.

According to one insider, “There’s no leadership, no trust, no direction and this point there’s very little hope.”

The President tried bringing something akin to a traditional policy process to the White House. Now he’s rebelling against it.

An unspecified number of White House staffers unable to obtain security clearances are out, with several more likely to follow.

The circumstantial case for corruption by Kushner is growing.

Staffers are fleeing the administration like rats from a sinking ship.

This is very much why the security clearance process requires so much financial disclosure.

The White House chief of staff has downgraded the President’s son-in-law’s access to classified information. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Jonathan Bernstein thinks so and Chuck Todd and company outline a pretty strong case.

The President’s fecklessness here is incredible. Either take these people out of sensitive posts or take the responsibility for granting them waivers. 

President Trump’s job approval hits a new low.

More security clearance problems for the White House.

Whether it’s the abuse angle or the more serious issue of security clearances, the White House still can’t get the story straight on the Rob Porter case.

More than a year into the Trump Presidency, dozens of White House personnel lack proper security clearances.

President Trump spoke up about the spousal abuse charges against his former Staff Secretary Rob Porter. His response was entirely predictable.

The Rob Porter story, which is quickly becoming the Rob Porter scandal, tells us a lot about the Trump White House, and none of it is good.