Mornings on the Mall 01.05.18

Derek Cohen, VA House of Delegates Speaker-designee Kirk Cox, Gary Byrne, Ken Cuccinelli and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, January 5, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   DOJ NEWS:

• CLINTONS:
  • Justice Department will again probe Clinton’s email server. (Axios) – The Department of Justice will take another look at the handling of classified documents on Hillary Clinton’s email server, according to a report from The Daily Beast. Among other things, the new inquiry is set to examine the volume of classified data on Clinton’s server and who might have transferred documents into an unclassified setting.
  • Why it matters: The news comes after President Trump has actively promoted reopening the investigation into Clinton’s emails, suggesting on Tuesday via Twitter that Clinton associate Huma Abedin and former FBI Director James Comey should face jail time. As a result, any reopened investigation would be riddled with questions about potential political interference from the White House.
  • Justice Department ‘Looking Into’ Hillary Clinton’s Emails— Again. (Daily Beast) – Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State, The Daily Beast has learned. An ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who is familiar with the thinking at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters described it as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material. Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when. The Sessions ally also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides may have made. A former senior DOJ official familiar with department leadership’s thinking said officials there are acutely aware of demands from President Donald Trump that they look into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State—and that they lock up her top aide, Huma Abedin.
  • FBI launches new Clinton Foundation investigation (The Hill) — The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill. FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the Foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in coming weeks. The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes. The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said. One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports
  • Comey’s original Clinton memo released, cites possible violations (The Hill) — Ex-FBI Director James Comey’s original statement closing out the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server was edited by subordinates to remove five separate references to terms like “grossly negligent” and to delete mention of evidence supporting felony and misdemeanor violations, according to copies of the full document. Comey also originally concluded that it was “reasonably likely” that Clinton’s nonsecure private server was accessed or hacked by hostile actors though there was no evidence to prove it. But that passage was also changed to the much weaker “possible,” the memos show.
• RUSSIA:
  • Federal Judge Deals HUGE Blow To Fusion GPS In Bank Records Battle. (Daily Caller) — A federal judge has ruled against Fusion GPS in the Trump dossier firm’s quest to block the release of its bank records to the House Intelligence Committee. Judge Richard Leon shot down all four of Fusion’s arguments against the release of 70 records of transactions involving some of its clients as well as journalists and researchers it has paid since Sept. 2015. Fusion sued its bank, TD Bank, in October, to prevent it from complying with a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee, which has been looking into Fusion’s role in putting together the dossier.
  • DOJ deal gives Nunes access to ‘all’ documents, witnesses sought in Russia probe, letter says (Fox News) — EXCLUSIVE: House investigators will get access this week to “all remaining investigative documents” – in unredacted form – that they had sought as part of their Russia inquiry, under a deal between Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., according to a letter obtained by Fox News. The letter, from Nunes to Rosenstein, summarizes an “agreement” reached on a phone call Wednesday evening and also says key FBI and Justice Department witnesses in the probe will be provided for interviews later this month. “It is my hope that this agreement will provide the Committee with all outstanding documents and witnesses necessary to complete its investigations,” Nunes wrote.
• CONSERVATIVES TURN ON SESSIONS:
  • Top conservatives want Jeff Sessions to step down (Axios) — Republican Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, the chairman and former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, respectively, said Thursday in a Washington Examiner op-ed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should step down. They cited intelligence leaks to the media from the Department of Justice Department and the agency’s handling of the probe into President Trump’s campaign ties to Russian operatives.
  • Why it matters: Republicans in Congress have defended Sessions when he was under Trump’s criticism last year over the handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails, as well as his decision to recuse himself from investigations involving the president. However, some GOP lawmakers have been vocal about the Justice Department’s Russia probe, which they said has yet to find evidence of collusion.
  • What they’re saying: “It is time for Sessions to start managing in a spirit of transparency to bring all of this improper behavior to light and stop further violations. If Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general? Sadly, it seems the answer is now.”
• POT POLICY: Sessions reverses Obama-era policy on marijuana, unleashes prosecutors. Sessions terminates US policy that let legal pot flourish. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law. Sessions’ action, just three days after a legalization law went into effect in California, threatened the future of the young industry, created confusion in states where the drug is legal and outraged both marijuana advocates and some members of Congress, including Sessions’ fellow Republicans. Many conservatives are wary of what they see as federal intrusion in areas they believe must be left to the states. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who represents Colorado, one of eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, said the change contradicts a pledge Sessions made to him before being confirmed as attorney general. Gardner promised to push legislation to protect marijuana sales, saying he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the change, including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees. Another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, called the announcement “disruptive” and “regrettable.”

5am – D         NORTH KOREA NEWS:

• North Korea accepts talks offer from South Korea, meeting to be held January 9. (NBC News) — SEOUL — North and South Korea will hold official talks on Jan. 9, South Korea’s unification ministry said on Friday, after Pyongyang sent a statement accepting Seoul’s offer for talks next week. The agenda will include the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics as well as other issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun told reporters.  “We received the official message from North Korea at 10:16 KST (8:16 PM ET Thursday) that they accept our proposal for holding the talks on Jan 9 at the Peace House. We also agreed to conduct the details of working level matters by exchanging documents,” said Baek. “The agenda is on matters regarding Pyeongchang Olympic games as well as issue concerning improving inter-Korean ties.”
• China Dispatches Nuclear Envoy to Seoul for North Korea Talks. (Breitbart) — South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs is scheduled to meet Chinese nuclear envoy Kong Xuanyou on Friday to discuss de-escalating tensions with North Korea. The meeting follows an invitation by the left-wing South Korean government to Kim Jong-un’s communist regime to discuss, among other things, reducing threats to South Korea and North Korea’s potential participation in the upcoming Winter Olympics hosted in PyeongChang, South Korea. South Korean news service Yonhap reported on Thursday that China will send Kong to Seoul “as part of efforts to beef up strategic communication regarding the North’s nuclear problem in line with the agreement reached at a summit between the two countries last year,” according to the South Korean foreign ministry.  A spokesman confirmed that the two will share an “in-depth discussion on the direction of their future plans.”
• Trump agrees to delay U.S.-South Korean military exercises to ease tensions with North Korea. Two days after he taunted North Korea about his “nuclear button,” President Trump indicated Thursday he would postpone long-planned joint U.S. military exercises with South Korean forces to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula during the Winter Olympics. Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-in in a phone conversation that he would agree to “de-conflict the Olympics and our military exercises” so both nations “focus on ensuring the security of the Games,” the White House said in a statement. The Olympics torch lighting ceremony is on Feb. 9 in the South Korean town of PyeongChang, about 60 miles south of the world’s most heavily armed border, and the Games will run until Feb. 25.
• North Korea accidentally crashed a missile into its own city last April: report. (Fox News) — An intermediate-range missile launched by North Korea last April crashed into a town near Pyongyang, possibly causing an explosion and casualties, The Diplomat reported on Wednesday. The IRBM was launched April 28, 2017 near Pukchang Airfield in South Pyongan Province and was the third in a series of failed launches that month, the report said. The missile crashed into the city of Tokchun after one minute of powered flight, the report said. The explosion caused “considerable damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings,” the report said, citing a U.S. government source with knowledge of the program.

5am – E         Republican wins drawing to decide Virginia House race, keeping GOP in charge. Two narrow slips of paper — one bearing the name of a Democrat and the other the name of a Republican — were rolled up by Virginia election officials Thursday, inserted into film canisters and dropped into a cobalt-and-white stoneware bowl. Dozens of officials, reporters and onlookers looked on silently as officials performed a bizarre lottery in Richmond to pick the winner of a closely contested House of Delegates district race — one that could upset Republicans’ long-held majority and leave the chamber evenly split between the two parties. Sitting in the front row, Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds clasped her husband’s and daughter’s hands as officials reached into the bowl and plucked the canisters out, one by one. “The winner of House District 94 is David Yancey,” declared the chairman of the state election board, James Alcorn, smiling tightly after unfurling the first piece of paper.

6am – A/B/C ‘SLOPPY STEVE’ BANNON:

• Trump slams ‘phony’ tell-all hours before its release, nicknames Bannon ‘Sloppy Steve.’  President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Thursday night to slam a scandalous new book about his first year in office as “full of lies,” just hours ahead of its new, pushed-up Friday morning release. In the same tweet, the president also seemingly coined a new nickname for former White House strategist Steve Bannon: “Sloppy Steve.”  Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! 10:52 PM – Jan 4, 2018  
• Newt Gingrich: There’s no coming back for Steve Bannon. (Washington Examiner) — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich believes Steve Bannon’s days are numbered after his explosive public back-and-forth with President Trump. Gingrich was at the Capitol on Thursday for a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. As he left, he was asked if Bannon could survive his battle with Trump. “No,” Gingrich mouthed while nodding his head as he exited the Capitol. “No,” he reiterated.
• Top Trump donor Rebekah Mercer snubs Steve Bannon in new statement (Washington Examiner) — Top Trump donor Rebekah Mercer said she no longer supports former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon while reiterating her support for the president amid a feud between the two over a tell-all book. “I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected,” Mercer said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.”
• The Mercers split from Steve Bannon was so complete — & so bitter — that they cut off funding for Bannon’s private security detail. (NY Times) —  The Mercers were blunt on Thursday in cutting the cord, reiterating support for Mr. Trump while disavowing Mr. Bannon’s remarks and disowning his political endeavors.
• EXCLUSIVE: Bannon nixed statement praising Trump Jr. after Trump attacked him (the Hill) – Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon on Wednesday was about to issue a statement praising Donald Trump Jr. and disputing his quotes in a book from Michael Wolff, but the statement was spiked after President Trump went nuclear on his former chief strategist. Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation say that Bannon’s aides sought to impress upon him the need to put out a statement quickly. The aides had crafted a statement, which was pending Bannon’s approval, when the White House beat him to the punch.
• WOLF BOOK: Trump demands publisher stop release of book that caused Bannon fallout.
• DC bookstore began selling explosive new Trump book at midnight (THE HILL) — KramerBooks will sell the first copies of a bombshell new book detailing the early days of President Trump’s administration starting Friday at midnight, the Washington, D.C., bookstore said on Twitter. The retailer, which is open until 1:00 a.m. on most weeknights, said that it will be among the first selling copies of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which is set to go on sale Friday. “@MichaelWolffNYC’s FIRE AND FURY is being released ahead of schedule tomorrow…but we will be selling it at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!” the bookstore tweeted Thursday.
• Michael Wolff has tapes to back up quotes in his incendiary book — dozens of hours of them. (AXIOS) – Michael Wolff has tapes to back up quotes in his incendiary book — dozens of hours of them. Among the sources he taped, I’m told, are Steve Bannon and former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh.     So that’s going to make it harder for officials to deny embarrassing or revealing quotes attributed to them in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” out Tuesday.
• Sean Spicer on Bannon’s book quotes: ‘What we didn’t hear is a denial’. Washington (CNN) Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday he is troubled that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has not denied the statements attributed to him in a recent book about the early days of President Donald Trump’s tenure. “While he may continue to say he’s a supporter of the President and his agenda, what we didn’t hear is a denial,” Spicer said in a conversation on HLN’s “SE Cupp Unfiltered.” He continued, “And that is what, as a PR person, troubles me. I mean, the first thing that you do when you’re attacked with a falsehood is not only deny it but go out and really make a case for it.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW — DEREK COHEN – is the director of the Center for Effective Justice and Right on Crime at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

• Sessions reverses Obama-era policy on marijuana, unleashes prosecutors
• Sessions terminates US policy that let legal pot flourish. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law. Sessions’ action, just three days after a legalization law went into effect in California, threatened the future of the young industry, created confusion in states where the drug is legal and outraged both marijuana advocates and some members of Congress, including Sessions’ fellow Republicans. Many conservatives are wary of what they see as federal intrusion in areas they believe must be left to the states.

6am – E         DYING STORES:

• SEARS CONTINUES ITS SLOW DEATH: Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears and Kmart stores, told its employees Thursday that it will be closing more than 100 additional stores this year. That consists of 64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores, all of which are expected to shut between early March and April.
• MACY’S FOLLOWS: Macy’s is planning 5,000 job cuts, including closure of seven previously unidentified stores and other cuts at remaining locations, as it seeks stability in a tumultuous climate for physical retail.

6am – F         Brian Ross Suspension At NBC Is Up But He’s Not Returning To Work. (Daily Caller) — An ABC News journalist who botched a report on the president and Russia has not yet returned to work despite his four-week suspension being over, according to a Thursday report. ABC News investigative journalist Brian Ross received a four-week suspension after he published a false report claiming former national security adviser Mike Flynn was preparing to testify that President Donald Trump told him to make connections with the Russians, Fox News reported. Ross was supposed to return by now from his four-week punishment, but has yet to do so, according to Fox News. An ABC News spokesperson also refused to comment on when or if the veteran journalist would be returning to the network at all. Ross has a history of making mistakes in his reporting. The Mike Flynn story, relying on a single anonymous source, caused the stock market to plummet. A story of his wrongly claimed the Aurora, Colo., mass shooter was a member of the Tea Party movement, while another of his stories incorrectly linked a series of anthrax attacks to Iraq.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — Virginia House of Delegates Speaker-designee KIRK COX (R-Colonial Heights)

• Republican wins drawing to decide Virginia House race, keeping GOP in charge. Two narrow slips of paper — one bearing the name of a Democrat and the other the name of a Republican — were rolled up by Virginia election officials Thursday, inserted into film canisters and dropped into a cobalt-and-white stoneware bowl. Dozens of officials, reporters and onlookers looked on silently as officials performed a bizarre lottery in Richmond to pick the winner of a closely contested House of Delegates district race — one that could upset Republicans’ long-held majority and leave the chamber evenly split between the two parties. Sitting in the front row, Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds clasped her husband’s and daughter’s hands as officials reached into the bowl and plucked the canisters out, one by one. “The winner of House District 94 is David Yancey,” declared the chairman of the state election board, James Alcorn, smiling tightly after unfurling the first piece of paper.

7am – B     DRILLING:

• Trump administration aims to open nearly all U.S. offshore to oil drilling
• Trump proposes massive expansion of offshore drilling
• Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the blueprint would open 25 of 26 planning areas off America’s coasts to drilling. White House wants to open up nearly all federal waters for offshore drilling
• Trump proposes massive expansion of offshore drilling. The Trump administration is proposing to greatly expand the areas available for offshore oil and natural gas drilling, including off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. In the first major step toward the administration’s promised expansion of offshore drilling, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said nearly all of the nation’s outer continental shelf is being considered for drilling, including areas off the coasts of Maine, California, Florida and Alaska. The proposal, which environmentalists immediately panned as an environmental disaster and giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, is far larger than what was envisioned in President Trump’s executive order last year seeking a new plan for the future of auctions of offshore drilling rights. That order asked Zinke to consider drilling expansions in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. “This is a start on looking at American energy dominance and looking at our offshore assets and beginning a dialogue of when, how, where and how fast those offshore assets should be, or could be, developed,” Zinke told reporters Thursday. He contrasted it with former President Barack Obama’s most recent five-year plan for offshore drilling lease sales, which had no drilling around Alaska or in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. The plan, which would include 47 auctions for drilling rights between 2019 and 2024, is part of Trump’s agenda to boost domestic oil and natural gas production to create “energy dominance” and unlock the nation’s “great energy wealth.” The only areas excluded from the plan are Alaska’s Bristol Bay — which former President George W. Bush protected — and existing marine sanctuaries. Interior also doesn’t allow drilling around Hawaii or U.S. territories.

7am – C         ‘I can’t believe I’m 104!’ Woman believes Diet Coke the reason for her longevity. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. – Theresa Rowley has been a resident at Sentinel Pointe Retirement Community in Grand Rapids for the past 15 years. She moved in when she was 89 years old. On Jan.1, 2018, she turned 104. “I’m surprised that I’m 104,” said Rowley. It just doesn’t seem like I should be that old.” When asked when she and her family moved to Grand Rapids, Rowley couldn’t remember the exact year, only saying that she was born in Illinois in 1914, then moved to North Dakota before eventually coming to Michigan. “When I was 100, I thought I’d never be 104; I thought I’d pass away by that time but it just didn’t happen,” said Rowley. “Then I turn 101, and nothing happens. “Here I am 104, and still nothing happens.” Maybe the reason why nothing has happened is because of her daily intake of her favorite beverage — Diet Coke. “I drink it because I like it,” said Rowley. “I’m going shopping Wednesday, and I need more Diet Coke. I have a bag full of empty Diet Coke cans that I need to return to buy more Diet Coke.” Rowley says she drinks at least one can of Diet Coke each day.

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – GARY BYRNE – former Secret Service Officer and author of new book “Secrets of the Secret Service” — IN STUDIO

• BIO: Gary Byrne served in federal law enforcement for nearly thirty years, in the U.S. Air Force Security Police, the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service, and as a Federal Air Marshal, and is most recently the author of the New York Times bestseller CRISIS OF CHARACTER. While in service as a Secret Service Officer, Gary protected President Bill Clinton and the First Family in the White House.
• Gary Byrne, a former Secret Service Officer and New York Times #1 Bestselling Author of Crisis of Character.  Apolitical institutions like the FBI and Secret Service have become so corrupted by politics that they now pose a risk in undermining President Trump, says Secret Service Officer Gary Byrne in his book, SECRETS OF THE SECRET SERVICE: THE HISTORY AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF THE U.S. SECRET SERVICE.  For example, Secret Service Agent Kerry O’Grady, who infamously posted on Facebook that she “would take jail time over a bullet” if she served on Trump’s detail and claimed her allegiance to the Resist Movement, is still on administrative leave with full benefits and a security clearance instead of being fired. Gary says the politicization of both critical agencies started in the Clinton Presidency, from Hillary Chief of Staff, Maggie Williams, who threatened a secret service officer who attempted to prevent her from tampering with evidence in the Kenn Starr investigation, to President Clinton himself who would abuse the “off the record trips” by sneaking off White House grounds in the back of a car shrouded in a large rain coat.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — KEN CUCCINELLI – former VA Attorney General and President of Senate Conservatives Fund – shared his thoughts on the Virginia election.

• Republican wins drawing to decide Virginia House race, keeping GOP in charge. Two narrow slips of paper — one bearing the name of a Democrat and the other the name of a Republican — were rolled up by Virginia election officials Thursday, inserted into film canisters and dropped into a cobalt-and-white stoneware bowl. Dozens of officials, reporters and onlookers looked on silently as officials performed a bizarre lottery in Richmond to pick the winner of a closely contested House of Delegates district race — one that could upset Republicans’ long-held majority and leave the chamber evenly split between the two parties. Sitting in the front row, Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds clasped her husband’s and daughter’s hands as officials reached into the bowl and plucked the canisters out, one by one. “The winner of House District 94 is David Yancey,” declared the chairman of the state election board, James Alcorn, smiling tightly after unfurling the first piece of paper.

8am – B/C     DOJ / SESSIONS NEWS:

• CLINTONS: Justice Department will again probe Clinton’s email server. Justice Department ‘Looking Into’ Hillary Clinton’s Emails— Again. FBI launches new Clinton Foundation investigation Comey’s original Clinton memo released, cites possible violations

• RUSSIA: Federal Judge Deals HUGE Blow To Fusion GPS In Bank Records Battle. DOJ deal gives Nunes access to ‘all’ documents, witnesses sought in Russia probe, letter says
• CONSERVATIVES TURN ON SESSIONS: Top conservatives want Jeff Sessions to step down. Jeff Sessions Should Go If He Won’t Ensure ‘Transparency,’ 2 House Conservatives Argue
• POT POLICY: Sessions reverses Obama-era policy on marijuana, unleashes prosecutors. Sessions terminates US policy that let legal pot flourish.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BRET BAIER – ANCHOR, SPECIAL REPORT, FOX NEWS CHANNEL – discussed the latest on the Bannon-Trump feud, the Mueller probe, midterms, Clinton probe

8am – E         Trump slams ‘phony’ tell-all hours before its release, nicknames Bannon ‘Sloppy Steve.’  President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Thursday night to slam a scandalous new book about his first year in office as “full of lies,” just hours ahead of its new, pushed-up Friday morning release. In the same tweet, the president also seemingly coined a new nickname for former White House strategist Steve Bannon: “Sloppy Steve.”