This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 174

… DNI Tulsi Gabbard launched Operation Distract From Epstein this weekend, releasing a report about the Russian election interference operation in 2016 which concluded with her referral to DOJ that former President Barack Obama and other senior officials be investigated and indicted for treason.

… The person Russian state media repeatedly refers to as “our girl Tulsi” has been trying to get back into the good graces of the cult leader after he was enraged and nearly fired Gabbard after she released a viral video warning that we have “never been closer to WWIII” after Trump bombed Iran. Trump reportedly felt that she had “gone rogue” by posting the video, which he took as a suggestion that his foreign policy was reckless and put the world in danger.

… Gabbard also infuriated Trump when she testified in March to Congress that Iran was “at least 3 years away” from developing a deliverable nuclear weapon - testimony that was cited repeatedly by Democrats who were critical of Trump’s subsequent attack on their nuclear sites. Instead of relying on US intel, Trump cited Israeli PM Netayahu’s assertion (which he had been making for 30 years), that Iran was just “weeks away” from a bomb.

… She hung on to her job and did what Trump expected her to do next - turn her office against his domestic enemies rather than focus on foreign threats. But this desperate move is likely to backfire spectacularly by making things even worse for AG Pam Bondi - she now has a criminal referral that is impossible to prove dumped into her lap with MAGA universally foaming at the mouth to see Obama in handcuffs any day now.

… Gabbard: “Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Admin to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, subverting the will of the American people and undermining our democratic republic. These documents detail a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama WH to subvert the will of the American people and try to usurp the President from fulfilling his mandate.”

… Gabbard went on Fox and announced that she referred her findings to DOJ: “There must be accountability.”

… Trump then praised a segment on Fox calling for Obama to be prosecuted with a Truth Social post: “The Panel was fantastic on prosecuting Obama and the ‘thugs’ who have just been unequivocally exposed on highest level Election Fraud. Congratulations to Tulsi Gabbard. Keep it coming!!!”

… Gabbard then went on Fox’s Sunday morning show with Maria Bartiromo: Q - Do you expect indictments and prosecutions? Gabbard: “In my view, yes, we have evidence to be able to move forward to prosecute and indict those responsible.” Bartiromo: “I want to put a spotlight on those responsible - Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Clapper” and others.

… Gabbard: "For the American people to have any sense of trust in the integrity of our democratic republic, accountability, action, prosecution, indictments for those who are responsible for trying to steal our democracy is essential."

… Bartiromo: So we need to look at Pam Bondi to bring us accountability? Gabbard: “Bondi and Kash Patel - it is their responsibility to move forward with this prosecution and these indictments.”

… Tulsi Gabbard has just written some very big checks, and MAGA fully expects Bondi to cash them with indictments of big names just as they did on Epstein, which caused them to be enraged when it didn’t happen.

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA): “Crimes of the century!”

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL): "This is one of the biggest scandals in American history. There needs to be criminal prosecution and arrests. Lying under oath, putting out a false intelligence report - that’s a violation of 18 U.S. Code 1001. That comes with a 7-year prison sentence.”

… Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): "There need to be arrests on this matter. People need to go to jail on this because this is about the Republic. This is not about one president - it is about the presidency and the continuation of our country."

… MAGA podcaster and propaganda film producer Dinesh D’Souza: “If they can arrest Trump, we can arrest Obama.”

… Newsmax host Carl Higbie: “All I’m saying is now that Tulsi Gabbard exposed Obama’s bullshit Russia-gate… SOMEONE BETTER GO TO JAIL. That was literally an insurrection This needs to be Pam Bondi’s NUMBER ONE priority!”

… Fox host Laura Ingraham: “This was why the Dems tried to defame Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian plant, so that when/if this came out, it could be brushed aside as more pro-Russian propaganda. This was worse than a smear campaign, this was a conspiracy to subvert the election and entire Trump presidency.”

… Newsmax host Todd Starnes: “At the very least Obama should be required to turn over his passport - along with the other conspirators.”

… Actor James Woods: “Now that the evidence has finally seen the light of day, the Republican Party is standing at the crossroads. If people aren’t arrested in handcuffs and tried in courts of law, the GOP is dead. If, however, the DOJ does their duty, the Democrats are likewise finished. Forever.”

… Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA): “The Senate Intel Committee unanimously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. If there had been some Obama conspiracy, we would have found it. This latest lie is another sad, dangerous example of Tulsi Gabbard trying to rewrite history and erode trust in the intelligence community.”

… Ranking Member of House Intel Committee Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT): “This is utter nonsense. Completely. Odd that then CIA Director Mike Pompeo didn’t say any of this. Or that none of the 6 DNIs in Trump’s first term said any of it. Once again, DNI Gabbard is trashing her own people in an attempt to regain Trump’s favor or to distract from the Epstein scandal. Probably both.”

… Himes: “No one alleges that the Russians did technical hacks of voting technology. But ALL of the investigations, including the Senate bipartisan investigation found that the Russians sought to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. I actually hope that DOJ takes this to court. They won’t, because they know that the howls of laughter from that court will be heard in 4 time zones. Watch for DOJ action. Not gonna happen. And when it doesn’t, I hope all the MAGA very online people ask why.”

… Himes was then asked on CBS’ Face the Nation if there is any legal basis to prosecute Obama or anyone else: "None. Absolutely none. What you saw from the DNI was not just a lie but a very dangerous lie. The Senate committee then led by Marco Rubio found unanimously that Russia meddled in the election to try to assist Trump. What Tulsi is doing is a slight of hand. This is Epstein all over again. Let's see if they bring charges, they won't! Because there's not a judge in the land, not a single judge, who will treat this with anything other than laughter. It is a lie."

… Former CNN editor Morten Overbye: “Did Tulsi Gabbard intentionally misread a 2016 intel brief to claim Obama faked Russian election interference? It appears so. The brief only said no vote tampering. That's exactly what Obama stated. Her ‘conspiracy’ doesn’t hold up. The Dec 8, 2016 brief Gabbard cites said Russia didn’t hack voting systems to change results. It never denied broader interference. Obama’s Oct 7, 2016, DHS-ODNI statement flagged DNC hacks and disinformation. Consistent.”

… Overbye: “Mueller’s 2019 report confirmed Russia’s GRU hacked DNC emails, leaked via WikiLeaks to sway voters. Bipartisan Senate reports (2017-20) found targeted hacks and propaganda campaigns. Senate and Mueller found Russia’s Internet Research Agency ran troll farms, reaching 126 million Americans with divisive ads and fake accounts. Investigations traced thousands of posts to Russia. That's interference.”

… “Gabbard says the Jan 2017 ICA used the discredited Steele dossier. Wrong. It cited GRU hacks, WikiLeaks, and troll data, later backed by Mueller and Senate findings. Dossier wasn’t central. Her ‘fake narrative’ ignores these facts. Gabbard’s redacted docs don’t disprove interference. DNC hacks, GRU actions, and 126M social media reaches are proven by bipartisan reports. No evidence backs her ‘treason’ claim. But her timing aligns with Trump’s Epstein scrutiny. Gabbard’s claim crumbles under facts. But nice try deflecting from Trump’s Epstein troubles.”

… Bryan Cunningham, President of cybersecurity firm Liberty Defense: “Tulsi Gabbard has abused her office and disgraced the US Intel Community with a selective and deliberately misleading release of highly classified documents (since I was involved in the SINGLE prior declassification of a President's Daily Brief and have reviewed hundreds of them, I can confirm the PDB is THE MOST sensitive US intel document). If you disagree, take it up with Senator (now Secretary) Rubio and the rest of the Republicans on the bipartisan committee.”

… So now Pam Bondi has two options thanks to Gabbard: 1. Indict Obama and senior officials on bogus charges setting a firestorm of protests all over the country only to have the case promptly tossed out of court, cementing her position as the most corrupt AG in US history; or 2. Do nothing with it, which will result in the same MAGA activists and influencers who were outraged about Epstein calling for her to be fired.

… And those calls are going to get louder and louder with each passing day.

… Of course, setting aside the complete lack of evidence regarding any crime being committed, Obama would also have presidential immunity thanks to the SCOTUS decision in Trump’s case.

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… Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent an inquiry to DOJ and FBI asking them to explain why hundreds of agents were reassigned to flag any documents in the Epstein files that mentioned Trump’s name: “Who made the decision to reassign hundreds of NY Field Office personnel to this March review of Epstein-related records? Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?”

… CNBC contacted the FBI about Durbin’s letter and received this email response: “The FBI has no comment.”

… Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson: “Hard to express how badly this is going to blow back on Trump. A thousand new witnesses and possible sources.”

… CNN’s Jake Tapper to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): Q - It’s true what Trump says - Dems didn’t do anything about the Epstein files throughout the 4 years of the Biden admin. Should you have? You sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Klobuchar: “Trump blaming Democrats is like that CEO who got caught on camera blaming Coldplay!”

… Trump and Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax that Trump should sue AOC: "It's a far stronger suit than it would be against WSJ. Because everybody knows that not only was he not convicted of being a rapist. She's making it up in the face of knowledge that it isn't true. So it would be much easier to prove malice against her than to prove it against WSJ. So if he's gonna sue WSJ, why shouldn't he sue her as well."

… Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said today on CBS that amazing trade deals are coming in 2 weeks: "They're going to love the deals that President Trump and I are doing. These countries are going to open their markets or pay the tariffs. The next two weeks are going to be weeks for the record books!"

… Two weeks.

… Brazilian President Lula on Trump imposing tariffs on his country because they are prosecuting former president Bolsonaro: "I'd like to say something to the American people - If Trump was Brazilian and did what he did at the Capitol, he'd be on trial in Brazil for violating the Constitution. He would be arrested if he had done that. What we cannot have is President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the US. He was not elected to be the emperor of the world.”

… We know. But our AG was Merrick Garland.

… WaPo reported that Justin Fulcher, senior advisor to Sec Def Pete Hegseth, has resigned: “Another senior aide to Hegseth is leaving the Pentagon, marking at least the 6th departure of a top adviser in Hegseth’s first 6 months in office. Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, came to the Cabinet job with little prior managerial experience and has struggled to achieve cohesion among his inner circle of aides. The staff churn, along with Hegseth’s other early missteps, has drawn sharp scrutiny from Congress and the WH.”

… “Fulcher was embroiled in controversy last month after the Guardian reported that he told Hegseth’s personal attorney, Tim Parlatore, and Hegseth’s chief of staff at the time, Joe Kasper, that he knew of surveillance measures that could be used to find leakers in the Pentagon. Fulcher joined Parlatore in the search for suspected leakers, but officials at the WH and in the Pentagon later determined that Fulcher had exaggerated his usefulness and the purported evidence he had alluded to did not exist. In light of that, some of Hegseth’s other advisers began to cast doubt on Fulcher’s standing in the admin.”

… Anchorage Daily News: “Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she feels ‘cheated’ after she won a concession in the recently passed budget bill to protect wind and solar projects, only to see the president issue orders that she said seem designed to quickly quash such projects: “I feel cheated. I feel like we made a deal then hours later, a deal was made to somebody else.”

… Trump posted about a WSJ report that Treasury Sec Scott Bessent talked him out of illegally firing Fed Chair Powell: “The WSJ ran a typically untruthful story today by saying that Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, explained to me that firing Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, the Worst Federal Reserve Chairman in History, would be bad for the Market. Nobody had to explain that to me. I know better than anybody what’s good for the Market, and what’s good for the U.S.A.”

… Trump appointed Powell, so if he’s the worst Fed Chair in history then Trump hurt the country with his incompetence on appointments. Trump has trashed well over half of the cabinet officials he has appointed from the first term as weak, incompetent, stupid, etc, so obviously he’s the worst president ever at appointing senior officials by his own admission.

… And his second cabinet is much worse.

… Reuters: “A federal judge on Friday dismissed Trump's $50 million lawsuit against the journalist Bob Woodward for publishing tapes from interviews for his 2020 best-seller ‘Rage’ as an audiobook. The decision by Judge Paul Gardephe is a victory for Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster and its former owner Paramount Global.”

… Statement from Trump's legal team: "In another biased action by a NY Court, this wrongful decision was issued without even affording President Trump the basic due process of a hearing. We will continue to ensure that those who commit wrongdoing against President Trump and all Americans are held accountable."

… Judge Gardephe was appointed by George W. Bush.

… WSJ: “With an overnight tripling of its annual budget and intensifying pressure to increase deportations, ICE is racing to expand its detention space with temporary tentlike structures, despite safety warnings. Trump admin officials have identified limited detention space as one of the major chokepoints preventing them from stepping up deportations as quickly as Trump has promised. They hope a new $45 billion for detention through the end of his term will help them get to 100,000 beds by the end of the year, up from roughly 40,000 when Trump took office.”

… “So far, the plans have given priority to erecting thousands of tents, or ‘hardened soft-sided facilities,’ as quickly as possible to expand detention capacity quickly at military bases and adjoining ICE jails. The heavy reliance on temporary facilities has already created some internal tensions, as some admin officials and outside Republican allies warn that detaining immigrants long term in flimsy structures could prove disastrous, particularly in locations prone to flooding or hurricanes.”

… NYT: “The Trump admin is trying to recruit recently retired immigration officers to fix a labor crunch, offering hefty signing bonuses and other financial incentives to staff its nationwide deportation campaign. Trump has outlined a plan to expand ICE by 10,000 officers and detail many of them to large, urban areas. Yet grueling schedules, worsening morale and increasing pressure to hit deportation quotas have complicated the already considerable challenge of finding thousands of qualified recruits to join ICE. So, too, have concerns that a massive, overnight expansion of the ranks could lead to lax vetting procedures, creating new problems such as those that occurred in the Border Patrol during Bush’s admin.

… ICE is running this ad online with offers of bonuses up to $50,000: “We are issuing an urgent call to former ICE officers to join OPERATION RETURN TO MISSION.”

… New CBS poll shows 51% disapprove of Trump’s deportation program, 49% approve. The same poll was 59-41% approving of his plan in Feb, and it was 54-46% in June.

… Trump posted on Truth Social that he wants Sen Maj Leader John Thune to keep them in session longer than he planned: “Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past 2 weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!!”

… Punchbowl: “It’s worth remembering that there are plans for GOP senators to spend much of August touting the ‘big beautiful bill’ back in their home states. Depending who you ask, this is more important for Trump than getting lower-level nominees confirmed.”

… NY Post: “Andrew Cuomo said he’ll pack his bags and flee to Florida if he loses the NYC mayoral race to socialist Zohran Mamdani: ‘It’s all or nothing. We either win or even I will move to Florida. God forbid!’ Cuomo told business leaders and other honchos at a Hamptons breakfast hosted by supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis. The statement drew laughs - and Cuomo’s campaign later insisted he was joking.”

… One attendee: “It was a wow line. It got everyone’s attention.”

… Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) on TX Gov Abbott’s move to redistrict his state mid-decade: “All the Dems currently in the House and in the Senate are for independent redistricting without gerrymandering. The question is, how do we get there? We do not get there by blue states having commissions and then rewarding red states for not having them. There has to be a cost. CA should have said, ‘We will have an independent commission when TX has one.’ NY should say, ‘We’ll get an independent commission when FL finally implements one.’ That’s how we get rid of this gerrymandering and this voter suppression that Trump is pushing.”

… Variety: “Last month Gavin Newsom sued Fox News, alleging host Jesse Watters defamed him by calling the Democrat a liar about the timing of a phone call with Trump regarding the LA protests over ICE raids and Trump’s deployment of troops to quell the disturbance. Watters on his show: “We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all - not when. We thought that the governor was clear when he said that there was no call. He didn’t deceive anybody on purpose, so I’m sorry. He wasn’t lying. He was just confusing and unclear. Next time, Governor, why don’t you just say what you mean?”

… “Watters, on his June 10 show, played an edited clip of Trump’s claim about his call with the governor that omitted Trump stating that the president spoke to Newsom ‘a day ago.’ Watters then asked, ‘Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?’ The show also featured an on-screen graphic that said ‘Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.’”

… Newsom responded to Watters’ on-air ‘apology’: “See you in court.”