Yesterday, April 15th, 2019, was the deadline for Elijah Cummings to inform Speaker Pelosi of his schedule for hearings in his newly modified House Oversight Committee assignment.  As many are aware the House Government Oversight Committee was changed for the 116th congress to narrow oversight under Pelosi’s new House rules.
In the current congress Chairman Elijah Cummings no longer has to worry about overall government oversight, Pelosi changed the intent to focus oversight exclusively on the White House:
Apparently in fulfillment of this targeted objective, Chairman Cummings has entered into Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) with the Chairs of other committees to share information specific to targeting President Trump.
Ranking member of the House Oversight Committee Jim Jordan is now asking questions:
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French President Emmanuel Macron said today he wants to see the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral rebuilt within five years.  During a televised address to the nation Macron affirmed “we will rebuild Notre Dame cathedral even more beautiful.”  He added “we can do it and once again, we will mobilize” to do so.

President Trump draws attention today to an article written by Andrew McCarthy.
NY Post […] “As night follows day, we were treated to the same Beltway hysteria we got this week: Silly semantic carping over the word “spying” — which, regardless of whether a judge authorizes it, is merely the covert gathering of intelligence about a suspected wrongdoer, organization or foreign power.
There is no doubt that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign. As Barr made clear, the real question is: What predicated the spying? Was there a valid reason for it, strong enough to overcome our norm against political spying? Or was it done rashly? Was a politically motivated decision made to use highly intrusive investigative tactics when a more measured response would have sufficed, such as a “defensive briefing” that would have warned the Trump campaign of possible Russian infiltration?
Last year, when the “spy” games got underway, James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, conceded that, yes, the FBI did run an informant — “spy” is such an icky word — at Trump campaign officials; but, we were told, this was merely to investigate Russia. Cross Clapper’s heart, it had nothing to do with the Trump campaign. No, no, no. Indeed, the Obama administration only used an informant because — bet you didn’t know this — doing so is the most benign, least intrusive mode of conducting an investigation.” (read more)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

The Chinese woman who tried to lie her way into Mar-a-Lago appeared in court today to plea ‘not guilty’.  However, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman ordered her continued detention and pointed out the obvious:  “It does appear to the court that Ms. Zhang was up to something nefarious when she unlawfully attempted to gain access to Mar-a-Lago”…

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – A Chinese woman charged with bluffing her way into U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida resort last month was denied bail on Monday by a federal judge who said he believed she was “up to something nefarious.”
Yujing Zhang, who was carrying multiple electronic devices when arrested, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment and detention hearing on Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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Council of Economic Advisor Chairman Kevin Hassett appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy.  Hassett compares current outcomes to the prior congressional budget office predictions; and shares the results for middle-class growth.

Margot Cleveland has an interesting article in The Federalist today outlining how the DOJ (Mueller) investigation of Christopher Steele was dropped [READ HERE]. Essentially the article outlines how Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley sent a criminal referral of Chris Steele to Rosenstein/Mueller in January 2018; however the case was used as a shield to ward-off FOIA inquiry, but the case was never actually pursued – and eventually dropped.

At the time of the 2018 referral CTH noted the Grassley/Graham referral was not what it appeared [See Here].  Additionally, with hindsight and a greater understanding of the Mueller team corruption, we can see how this specific referral hits the center of the FBI intent around their Russia collusion-conspiracy.
The issue surrounds the October 2016 Carter Page FISA application and how the Steele Dossier was used therein.
When the stories first broke about the Steele Dossier being the majority of the FBI evidence (December 2017), the FBI investigators were claiming they were never aware of Chris Steele shopping his dossier to the media.  However, at the same time Glenn Simpson was testifying to congress that the FBI knew Chris Steele was shopping the dossier.
SIDE NOTE: The need for everyone to see what Fusion-GPS (Glenn Simpson) was saying is the reason why Dianne Feinstein “accidentally” released the Simpson transcript (remember, she had a cold).  Feinstein released the transcript five days after the Graham/Grassley referral.  Democrats knew everyone needed to be on the same page and reading from the same manuscript. I digress…
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A horrific historic and cultural loss. The 850 year old architectural masterpiece is a central monument to the Catholic faith. A spokesman said the entire wooden frame of the cathedral has come down, and the vault of the edifice could be threatened too. ‘Everything is burning, nothing will remain from the frame,’ Notre Dame spokesman Andre Finot told French media.

The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. Pictures showed enormous plumes of smoke billowing into the city’s skyline and flames engulfing large sections of the historic building as firefighters struggled to contain the inferno.
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According to the DOJ Attorney General William Barr will release the redacted version of the Mueller report on Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department expects to make a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation public Thursday morning, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The redacted report would be sent to Congress and also made available to the public, spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. (read more)