| | | | | President Trump walks toward Marine One while departing the White House to visit first lady Melania Trump at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Wednesday. Credit: Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images | | | Congratulations, America: We've made it through one year (or 36.5 Scaramuccis) of Mueller's investigation
Poll of the Day: Only 4% of Americans have Twitter, follow Trump, and read most of his tweets
Trump's Just Gonna Wing It: He allegedly "doesn't think he needs to" prep for the North Korea summit | | | | Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return Tuesday. | | What Washington is Talking About:
Gina Haspel's nomination as CIA director is heading to the Senate floor with a possible vote this afternoon. And the Senate Intel Committee said in a statement Wednesday that it concluded Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 campaign were "extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton."
What America is Talking About:
Is he going or no? Keeping up with whether Meghan Markle's father will be at the royal wedding has been exhausting, but today, Markle said in a statement he will not be attending.
Poll of the Day:
If you follow @realDonaldTrump and read all or most of his tweets (🙋♂️), you are in the minority and are probably a total govster (😔 "but it's for work," I whispered). A Gallup poll found about a quarter of Americans have a Twitter account, 8% have an account and follow Trump, and 4% have an account, follow Trump and actually read most of the President's tweets. | | Credit: Gallup
Congratulations, America:
We've made it through one year (or 36.5 Scaramuccis) of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. It's racked up charges against 19 people -- including Trump's former campaign chairman and two other campaign aides -- and three companies, and brought 75 criminal charges. | | Credit: CNN
President Trump marked the occasion with a tweet (which we now know most Americans didn't read) filled with unnecessary capitalization and calling it "the greatest Witch Hunt in American History." | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Behind the Scenes with Mueller:
If you read one thing about the investigation's first year, make it this story that goes behind-the-scenes by our Sara Murray, Evan Perez and Dana Bash. Mueller's team is as leak-proof as a Beyoncé backup dancer before Coachella, and witnesses are often picked up from rendezvous points by vehicles that include a tinted-window SUV or a teal, dented car, and brought to their interviews in secret. A source close to Trump said he's doing "a better job compartmentalizing" the investigation. "It's there, it's a pain in the ass, but it's not the dominant feature anymore," the source said.
Rudy's Saying Things Again:
The Trump team has been adamant: there was no collusion and they didn't get any dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians. But then Rudy Giuliani goes on Fox News last night and said even if they did get dirt on Clinton from the Russians, "there is nothing illegal about that." He also told CNN that Mueller's team told them they could not indict a sitting president.
Cambridge Whistleblower Alleges Company Tried to Suppress the Vote:
Pink-haired former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the firm engaged in voter suppression, and he told CNN that African-Americans were among the groups targeted. He also said this about Steve Bannon:
"Bannon sees cultural warfare as the means to create enduring change in American politics. It was for this reason Mr. Bannon engaged SCL (Cambridge Analytica's parent company), a foreign military contractor, to build an arsenal of informational weapons he could deploy on the American population." | | Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Trump Just Wants to Wing the NoKo Summit:
Despite North Korea's threat to pull out of the summit, the US is going forward under the assumption it will happen. But Trump isn't doing his homework. "He doesn't think he needs to," a senior administration official told Time.
Your Trump 2017 Financial Disclosure Spark Notes:
Trump's financial disclosure showing income he made in 2017 was released Wednesday. You can read the full thing here (pages 2-12 are a list of all the companies he held a position for until the day before he took office, so you can skip if you want), but here's the tl;dr: - Trump acknowledged for the first time that he made a payment to his attorney Michael Cohen: The doc doesn't explicitly say what the payment was for or for how much it was, but lawyers for Trump have said he reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels. Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted this:
| | Credit: @MichaelAvenatti/Twitter - Trump's Washington hotel is one of his best performing properties: He made $40,408,037 from the hotel, which has become a hub for Trump fans, lobbyists and foreign governments. In March, the Trump Organization donated $151,470 it said it made from foreign governments, an attempt to show it's not profiting off them. But they never provided fuller details about where the money came from or where it was spent. 🕵️
- "Art of the Deal" is his best-selling book: Trump's 1987 ghostwritten bestseller made between $100,001 and $1,000,000. Five other books made somewhere in the thousands. His 2016 campaign book, "Crippled America," was a flop last year and made between 0 and $200.
| | - He made some money off "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Little Rascals": Trump made between $201 and $1,000 for appearances on each. He made a cameo on "Fresh Prince" with Marla Maples for an episode in which they almost bought Uncle Phil's house. You can watch it here.
- Melania's out here making money from her photos: FLOTUS made between $100,001 and $1,000,000 on royalties from photos on Getty Images.
Street Art Sighting:
This baby Trump was spotted by Marla Bilonick in an alley near Florida and 6th NW in D.C. His tie (yes, that's a Confederate flag on it 😳) is way too short. Completely unrealistic. | | Credit: @MarlaBilonick/Twitter
If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE.
P.S.:
Backstreet's back, alright? BSB released their first new song in five years, and I don't hate it. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is exactly the type of music you'd imagine Backstreet Boys would release in 2018, and even in their 40s, BSB's synchronized dance moves haven't missed a beat. | | | | | | |
