Yet more impeachable offenses. First up:
Virtually overnight, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s members-only Palm Beach, Fla., club, has been transformed into the part-time capital of American government, a so-called winter White House where Mr. Trump has entertained a foreign head of state, health care industry executives and other presidential guests.
But Mr. Trump’s gatherings at Mar-a-Lago — he arrived there on Friday afternoon, his third weekend visit in a row — have also created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in American history: a kind of Washington steakhouse on steroids, situated in a sunny playground of the rich and powerful, where members and their guests enjoy a level of access that could elude even the best-connected of lobbyists.
…
Mr. Trump’s son Eric, in an interview on Friday, rejected suggestions that his family was offering access to his father and profiting from it. First, he said, only 20 to 40 new members are admitted per year, and second, the wealthy business executives who frequent the club, among others, have many ways to communicate with the federal government if they want to.
“It assumes the worst of us and everyone, and that is unfair,” Eric Trump said.
Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, said the president had no conflicts of interest, a reference to the fact that federal law exempts him from provisions prohibiting federal employees from taking actions that could benefit themselves financially.
As a side note, assuming the worst about Donald Trump is merely prudence.
Next up:
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, met with a senior Time Warner Inc. executive in recent weeks and expressed the administration’s deep concerns about CNN’s news coverage, according to a White House official and other people familiar with the matter.
…
While the administration is battling a large swath of the media, the fight with CNN has special intrigue because its parent company has a massive piece of business awaiting government approval: a proposed $85.4 billion sale to AT&T Inc. Messrs. Kushner and Ginsberg, who have been friends for a decade and whose discussion covered a variety of issues including Israel and the economy, didn’t discuss the merger in their recent meeting, said the people familiar with the matter.
In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would block the agreement and singled out the news network in his statement. “AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration,” he said. The deal will be reviewed by government agencies including the Justice Department.
via Hullabaloo, quoting the behind a paywall Wall Street Journal.
CNN appears to be resisting the pressure, probably, at least in part, because its mildly anti-Trump coverage has been good for its ratings, despite Trump’s claims that they are going down. (Imagine, Trump lied about that. Who would have thought?)
Once again, imagine if Obama, or Clinton, had done something even approaching either of the above. We would never hear the end of it. With Trump, it’s covered for a day and then down the memory hole. It’s not only that IOKIYAR. It’s also a function of the fact that it’s all written off as Trump being Trump.
It reminds me of a phenomenon some of my fellow lawyers will recognize. There are certain lawyers who make a habit out of doing outrageous things. They do them so often the judges stop taking notice, and it just becomes a case of Attorney X being X. If one of the rest of us, who normally behave according to accepted norms, behaved similarly, we’d get slammed.
Anyway, two more impeachables for the record.
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