Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 5:39 AM and sunset 8:02 PM, for 14h 22m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 55.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1864, Battle of the Wilderness ends: “The fighting on May 5-7, 1864, produced nearly 30,000 casualties without giving either side a clear victory. The 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fought at the Battle of the Wilderness.”
Recommended for reading in full —
➤ Nathalie Baptiste writes Rudy Giuliani Definitely Did Not Make Things Better for Trump in this ABC Interview (“Who keeps letting him go on TV?”):
Rudy Giuliani has successfully completed another bewildering interview.
The most interesting parts of his appearance with ABC’s This Week fall into two categories: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and, of course, Stormy Daniels.
On the first point, Giuliani told host George Stephanopoulos that Trump didn’t have to comply with a subpoena from Mueller. “He’s the president of the United States,” he said. He also said wasn’t sure that Trump wouldn’t exercise his right to remain silent during questioning from Mueller—never mind that in the past Trump has basically said that only guilty people plead the Fifth.
The interview came on the heels of quite an interesting week for the former mayor of New York. After telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Trump had not violated campaign finance law because he had in fact reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels, he had to walk back the claim when legal experts said it probably did. Then, on Sunday, Giuliani tried to downplay the whole thing, attempting to make it seem like pocket change. He specifically called it “a nuisance payment.” He added, “People don’t go away for $130,000.”
He also didn’t rule out that Cohen had paid for the silence of other women on behalf of Trump.
…
➤ Cynthia Sewell reports Crapo campaign used D.C. condo 81 times at no cost:
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has admitted to federal election officials that he used a lobbyist-owned Washington, D.C., townhouse 81 times over a four-year period at no cost, including as recently as February.
The new details from Crapo’s re-election and leadership committees came in a response to a Federal Election Commission inquiry.
The committees conducted an internal review of use of the townhouse and “fully disclosed to the FEC the date and purpose of each use of the space – not just those named in the FEC complaint filed last month – as well as the corresponding reimbursements,” said Sam Neel, counsel for the committees.
“Senator Crapo strives to adhere to all FEC laws and regulations and has worked quickly to correct the oversight that occurred regarding the use of the townhouse,” Neel said, in a statement provided on behalf of Crapo.
(It’s a paltry striving that somehow misses 81 times.)
➤ Carol D. Leonnig, Shane Harris, and Josh Dawsey report Gina Haspel, nominee to head CIA, sought to withdraw over questions about her role in agency interrogation program:
Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to become the next CIA director, sought to withdraw her nomination Friday after some White House officials worried that her role in the interrogation of terrorist suspects could prevent her confirmation by the Senate, according to four senior U.S. officials.
Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing on Wednesday and potential damage to the CIA’s reputation and her own, the officials said. She was summoned to the White House on Friday for a meeting on her history in the CIA’s controversial interrogation program — which employed techniques such as waterboarding that are widely seen as torture — and signaled that she was going to withdraw her nomination. She then returned to CIA headquarters, the officials said.
Taken aback at her stance, senior White House aides, including legislative affairs head Marc Short and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, rushed to Langley, Va., to meet with Haspel at her office late Friday afternoon. Discussions stretched several hours, officials said, and the White House was not entirely sure she would stick with her nomination until Saturday afternoon, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
(Haspel never should have been nominated.)
➤ William K. Rashbaum, Danny Hakim, Brian M. Rosenthal, Emily Flitter, and Jesse Drucker report How Michael Cohen, Trump’s Fixer, Built a Shadowy Business Empire:
He was a personal-injury lawyer who often worked out of taxi offices scattered around New York City.
There was the one above the run-down auto repair garage on West 16th Street in Manhattan, on the edge of the Meatpacking District before it turned trendy. There was the single-story building with the garish yellow awning in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge. There was the tan brick place on a scruffy Manhattan side street often choked with double-parked taxis.
And then there was his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower overlooking Fifth Avenue, right next to the one belonging to Donald J. Trump.
Before he joined the Trump Organization and became Mr. Trump’s lawyer and do-it-all fixer, Michael D. Cohen was a hard-edge personal-injury attorney and businessman. Now a significant portion of his quarter-century business record is under the microscope of federal prosecutors — posing a potential threat not just to Mr. Cohen but also to the president.
➤ Jessica Taylor reports Republican Fears About Holding The Senate Start To Sink In:
Democrats are going into the 2018 elections with the wind at their backs, which could even be enough to flip a Senate map heavily stacked for Republicans come November.
In conversations with several top GOP strategists, nearly all conceded that the overwhelming Democratic enthusiasm they’re facing this November is incredibly worrisome. Most still think it’s a better than even chance that they do keep the Senate — albeit narrowly — but it’s no longer out of the realm of possibility that the upper chamber could change hands, especially given the volatility of the GOP’s two-seat majority.
“Generally speaking, close races aren’t won by the party with the wind in their face. That’s not the way it works,” said one top GOP Senate race veteran. “If we lose 40 to 50 seats in the House, you can’t pick up three to four Senate seats.”
➤ These Prosthetics Make Everyday Tasks Easier: