White House officials: Tillerson is “irrelevant”

Developments on Day 329 of the Trump Administration:

See also Podcast: How to Respond to a Trump Visit to the UK?
How Trump Dismissed Russia’s Role in 2016 Election — and How He is Ignoring the Threat Now

Is Kushner Behind Assault on Secretary of State?

A faction in the White House, possibly linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has renewed its attack on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“Senior White House officials” launched their latest volley through leaks to The Washington Post that Tillerson “cannot remain in his job for the long term”.

Two weeks ago, the White House group told media of a plan for Tillerson to be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Talks of Tillerson’s dismissal receded, however, and the report was framed as an attempt to contain the Secretary of State rather than pushing him out.

Podcasts: Is Trump Going to Fire Secretary of State Tillerson?

Since then, Tillerson had been off to the side in White House diplomacy as Donald Trump made his high-profile recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Kushner, who is Trump’s envoy for Middle Eastern affairs, is believed to be behind the step.

On Tuesday, the Secretary of State broke any political ceasefire by pulling back Trump’s military-first approach to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, even saying that the US would enter talks with Pyongyang without preconditions.

One White House official said Tillerson “had not learned his lesson from the last time” when Trump publicly rebuked the Secretary of State on Twitter over the idea of talking to North Korea. A “senior US official” claimed foreign diplomats and leaders often ask if Tillerson is speaking for the Administration and inquire when he will depart.

Another White House aide said White House officials, diplomats, and other Cabinet secretaries see Tillerson as “irrelevant”. He repeated the line from early December of “fairly regular conversations” about who will replace Tillerson, although he said Pompeo may no longer be the leading choice because Trump likes his daily briefings as CIA Director.

“I think our allies know at this point he’s not really speaking for the administration,” the aide said.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump “is very pleased with his entire national security team, which includes Secretary Tillerson.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson “enjoys a strong relationship with the President. Most importantly, they share a commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the security of our homeland and the protection of our allies.”

Former High-Level Officials File Brief in Lawsuit Against Trump Campaign and Confidant Stone

Fourteen former senoir US officials have written a “friends of the court” brief as part of a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s campaign and Roger Stone, the conspiracy theorist who is Trump’s longtime confidant.

The lawsuit was filed in July by three private citizens — Roy Cockrum, Scott Comer, and Eric Schoenberg — whose personal information was stolen last year in hacks of the Democratic National Committee and published by WikiLeaks. The plaintiffs argue that the Trump campaign, Stone, “and those they conspired with arranged for the hacked information to be provided to WikiLeaks.”

When the Trump campaign and Stone filed motions to dismiss the complaint, the plaintiffs responded on December 1 by setting out a “motive to collaborate” and points of contact between the campaign and Russia.

Among the former officials who filed the amicus brief on December 8 are CIA Director John Brennan; Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Director of the National Security Agency Michael Hayden; Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines; US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul; and and Acting CIA Director Michael Morell.

The officials emphasized that they cannot disclose classified information, but they made clear that the Kremlin used local actors to amplify the scope and impact of its influence operations, including intervention in the US election in 2016. They said cutouts range from “the unwitting accomplice who is manipulated to act in what he believes is his best interest, to the ideological or economic ally who broadly shares Russian interests, to the knowing agent of influence who is recruited or coerced to directly advance Russian operations and objectives”.

The brief explained operations often involve cyber-attacks and the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories and cyber-attacks to “undermine confidence in democratic leaders and institutions” and “discredit candidates for office perceived as hostile to the Kremlin”.

Trump Thanks Putin for Praising Him

Donald Trump thanks Russian President Vladimir Putin for his praise during an annual press conference.

On Wednesday Putin gave his lengthy year-end review of events in Moscow. He indicated several swipes at the Trump-Russia investigation, saying that it was “invented by people who are in opposition to Trump” and was trying to distract from Trump’s “fairly serious achievements over the short period he’s been working”.

The White House readout of Thursday’s Trump call with Putin says, “President Trump thanked President Putin for acknowledging America’s strong economic performance in his annual press conference.”

White House Withdraws Nomination of “Not Qualified” Judge Nominee

The White House will withdraw the nomination of Brett Talley, a lawyer unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, for a lifetime federal district judgeship.

Talley, named by Donald Trump in September for the US District Court in central Alabama, has no trial experience and was only the fourth nominee since 1989 to be rated “not qualified” by the ABA.

The nominee did not disclose his marriage to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff for White House lawyer Don McGahn. Meanwhile, he drew attention as a ghost hunter and horror novelist. In posts on social media sites, he appeared to defend “the first KKK” and responded to the 2012 mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School, “My solution would be to stop being a society of pansies and man up.”

Nominations such as Talley’s have raised concerns that the Trump Administration is trying to pack courts with hundreds of new conservative judges, some of whom have questionable credentials.

Matthew Peterson, a Federal Election Commissioner who has never tried a case, showed a lack of basic legal knowledge in questioning by a Senator earlier this week:

The White House has also withdrawn the nomination of Jeff Mateer to a district court post in Texas after questions over Mateer’s extreme statements about transgender children.

The nominee has labelled transgender youth as part of “Satan’s plan” and said the 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage was “disgusting”, suggesting the decision could spur polygamy or bestiality.