So Donald Jr. released his emails. He has now added page 4:

One of the early emails shows it's the Russian Crown Prosecutor he's going to meet with who according to Goldstone, is working on behalf of the Russian government to help Trump win. Why would anyone believe the prosecutor's current denial was crafted by her rather than the Russian Government? Is there even a "Crown Prosecutor" in Russia? (Turns out there is no such thing and she's a lawyer, but not for the Government.)

On Jun 3, 2016, at 10:36 AM, Rob Goldstone wrote: Good morning. Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump- helped along by Aras and Emin.

The Trump son responds: [More...]

The Washington Post on Trump's changing Russia stories and on Donald Trump, jr.

The New York Times broke the story. More on Trump jr's two different stories on Russia meetings.

Donald Trump didn't make the G2 meeting on Africa today. Ivanka took his place.

The first daughter was spotted slipping into Trump's seat at a working session on “Partnership with Africa, Migration and Health,” putting her shoulder to shoulder with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Russian President Vladimir Putin was sitting one seat down.

The protests in Germany over the G-20 meetings have been huge.

Iraqi troops finally defeated ISIS in Mosul.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The media is exploding about the Ugly American Donald Trump and his latest tweet about a tv host's plastic surgery.

“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”

Trump seems to have a "thing" about blood and women -- first Meghan Kelly and now Mika Brzezinski.

What a shame for America that a man with such a vulgar, low-class way of expressing himself is occupying a desk in the oval office.

P.S. Memo to Donald: You could use a facelift yourself. Have you noticed how much your face has aged since January?

From New York Magazine on Jared's unsuccessful trip to the Middle East to bring peace, Roadmap to Nowhere:

Palestinian leaders were said to be greatly disappointed in Kushner and Greenblatt serving as go-betweens for Netanyahu, as well as Kushner’s unwillingness to state a clear position on the issue of settlements. Al-Hayat even suggested that Trump was considering abandoning his effort to broker Mideast peace after the meeting, though a senior administration official dismissed that claim as “nonsense,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

It appears Netanyahu played Kushner like a fiddle, sending him to Ramallah with a laundry list of demands that he knew Abbas would reject, further delaying the start of any ostensible peace negotiations by instigating a diplomatic crisis he could then blame on Palestinian intransigence.

What's mind-boggling is that he was given this role in the first place: [More...]

Trump is always touting his ability to close a deal. He failed with health care the first time around, and the New York Times reports he's faltering as a closer this time around.

If Republicans do manage to broker a deal — as Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, pledged to do during a lively East Room back-and-forth with the president — it is not likely to be because of Mr. Trump’s involvement. Until Tuesday afternoon, the president was largely on the sidelines as the fate of one of his most important campaign pledges played out.

... [O}ver the past few weeks, the Senate Republican leadership has made it known that it would much rather negotiate with Mr. Pence than a president whose candidacy many did not even take seriously during the 2016 primaries. And some of the White House’s efforts have clearly been counterproductive.

The self-created myth of Donald Trump is being peeled away, layer by layer, just like an onion. Pretty soon he'll be standing in front of us naked. (Bob Dylan, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)...."But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.")[More...]

Donald Trump today said there are no tapes of him and James Comey. Why couldn't he have said that initially?

Just more confirmation he just throws things out there as part of his stream of consciousness that have no basis in fact. Either that, or he is unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, or still has a child-like need to make stuff up to boost his position.

Jeff Sessions will begin testifying soon. I'll be at the jail, but will try to listen on the car radio.
Here's a place to discuss it.

Rod Rosenstein testified this morning and stated only he can fire Mueller. And he would not do so without a good reason. I didn't believe the rumor to begin with-- considering the sources.

As of this moment, and of course subject to change (as is everything with the Trump Administration), Jefferson Sessions will testify publicly tomorrow about Russia.

Unfortunately, Senators want to ask him about the one meeting that probably wasn't a meeting, and he'll come out looking okay.

Members of the committee are likely to ask Sessions about a possible third undisclosed meeting that is now under investigation, according to media reports.

There was a meet and greet at the foreign policy speech in April 2016. There are photos of both of them. But according to most people, including the event host, there was just a meet and greet:

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the freeze on Trump's travel ban.

A West Coast federal appeals court upheld the freeze on President Trump’s travel ban Monday, declaring that Trump had exceeded his lawful authority in suspending the issuance of visas to residents of six Muslim majority countries and suspending the U.S. refu­gee program.

...Unlike other courts in the past, the three judges on the 9th Circuit did not dwell on Trump’s public comments. Instead, they ruled that Trump’s travel ban lacked a sufficient national security or other justification that would make it legal.

Trump will probably turn more effort to packing the courts with conservative judges. Rather, he'll let the Federalist Society do the picking. I doubt he'd know how to pick a judge on his own.

Here's the transcript of the testimony so far.

Sounds like he said he believes Trump is a liar, and that he directed him to drop the Flynn investigation, but he can't say whether Trump committed obstruction of justice.

Was there a smoking gun in his testimony? Not from the news coverage I've seen.

Here is James Comey's prepared testimony on Trump and Russia. The New York Times has this description.

Trump says Comey's statement vindicates him because it confirms he assured Trump he wasn't personally under investigation.

I don't think that's the issue. The issue is whether he interfered or attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation. There's enough in Comey's statement to show he attempted to interfere with the investigation into Mike Flynn. Comey makes it clear he understood Trump to be requesting the FBI drop the investigation. Is it a smoking gun? No. But it is another loose brick in the wall of the House of Trump, the foundation of which crumbles a bit more every day. [More...]