RUTHFULLY YOURS

Perhaps the most noteworthy media development of the Trump era is the rise of “impeachment porn”: regular breathless stories that purport to share the latest dirt from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — but are based on nothing more than innuendo and speculation.

The latest instalment: a “bombshell” New York Times story on President Trump’s efforts to keep a tight grip on the Russia investigation. Careless readers won’t even notice that the worst alleged Trump behavior falls far short of the clear obstruction of justice that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation over Watergate.

The article is a mix of leaks from various sources — none of which seem to come directly from Mueller’s office. Even the “news” that the probe is focusing on possible obstruction is based on analysis from outsiders, not informed insiders.

The article claims that Trump — enraged by what he saw as a politically motivated investigation swiftly moving out of control — pressed hard to hold the reins close.

He told his White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to press Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself in the election-meddling probe. McGahn tried — but Sessions recused himself anyway. At no time did Trump cross the line by ordering Sessions to stay on board — nor is there any suggestion he’s ever told anyone to lie under oath.

That’s a far cry from Nixon demanding that the CIA block the FBI’s Watergate probe by citing phony national-security issues.

The Justice Department has opened up an new investigation into the Clinton Foundation to see if it conducted “pay-to-play” politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, The Hill reported on Thursday.

FBI agents from Little Rock have already interviewed at least one witness, according to the report.

The Hill’s John Solomon reported that the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the probe was examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for contributions to their charitable efforts or whether donors promised to make donations in hopes of government outcomes.”

The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.

One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.The U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas is Cody Hiland, who is a veteran of the Huckabee administration.

“He was working for Mike Huckabee back in the days when the Clinton machine was trying to take Huckabee out as governor,” Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt said Thursday night on Fox News@Night. “This is some old blood-feud stuff,” he added.

“If this prosecutor out in Little Rock wants to take a good look at what the Clintons were doing and what was going on, I don’t think there’s probably much to stop him,” Stirewalt said. “We remember Peter Schweizer’s book (Clinton Cash),” he continued. “We reported on it, the New York Times reported on it, others reported on it — that had a lot of stinky stuff in it. It seemed inappropriate.” CONTINUE AT SITE

The Ohio state treasurer who was pressing forward with a well-funded challenge to incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) dropped out of the race today, citing his wife’s health issues.

Josh Mandel challenged Brown’s Senate seat back in 2012, but lost with 45 percent of the vote. Some polls over the past year showed Mandel with the lead in a head-to-head rematch with Brown, in a race rated as leaning toward the Dems.

Mandel, a 40-year-old Marine Corps veteran, issued a statement noting that his campaign has been “on a path to defeating Sherrod Brown this November,” including by being “the top fundraising Republican challenger in the country.”

The candidate said he “recently learned” that his wife, Ilana, “has a health issue that will require my time, attention and presence. In other words, I need to be there.” The two were married in 2008 and have three children together.

“Understanding and dealing with this health issue is more important to me than any political campaign. For as long as that takes, whether it is months or years, it is important that I heed my dad’s advice and be there for my wife and our kids,” Mandel continued. “After recent discussions with our family and healthcare professionals, it has become clear to us that it’s no longer possible for me to be away from home and on the campaign trail for the time needed to run a US Senate race.”

The Republican called it “a difficult decision for us, but it’s the right one.”

Hiring at private U.S. employers grew more than expected in December, according to a report, as the busy holiday shopping season prompted businesses to hire in order to keep up with demand.

Firms across the country added 250,000 workers to their ranks in December, according to payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. and forecasting firm Moody’s Analytics.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the addition of 195,000 jobs.

The November total was revised down to 185,000 from 190,000.

The ADP report is based on private-payroll data in addition to government data.

“Robust Christmas sales prompted retailers and delivery services to add to their payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

“We’ve seen yet another month where the labor market has shown no signs of slowing,” vice president and co-head of ADP Research Institute Ahu Yildirmaz.

Growth was driven by small businesses which added more than double their monthly average for the past six months.

The ADP report comes ahead of the monthly jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The BLS report is expected to show slower growth in employment in December compared to the strong gains seen in November. Economists expect nonfarm jobs to rise by 180,000 for December, compared with 228,000 the prior month.

Friday’s Labor Department report on the December jobs market was mostly ho-hum, with the economy creating 148,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate staying flat at a low 4.1%. But one more hopeful figure leapt out at us and a few others: The unemployment rate for black Americans fell to its lowest rate ever at 6.8%.

That’s right. The jobless rate for African-Americans hasn’t been lower since 1972, the earliest date we could find in the Bureau of Labor Statistics data tables. The jobless rate for blacks has always been substantially higher than for whites, and it tends to fall faster later in the economic cycle as growth picks up steam. The black jobless rate fell into the 7%-8% range in 1999-2000, before the dot-com bubble burst, and briefly in 2007 before the financial panic. But it climbed back to as high as 16.8% in 2010 before a long, slow decline as the economy recovered.

The rate has fallen especially fast the last couple of years, and in December fell another 0.4 percentage points. That big a fall might be a statistical anomaly that bounces back up in future months, but the downward trend is as clear as the political and economic message: Get the economy growing faster, and everyone will benefit.

Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian collusion back in May. A new year is upon us.

The warm May temperatures have been replaced by a deep freeze and snow is falling in Tallahassee. But after blowing through around $7 million and putting on an exciting show of surprise raids, gag orders, leaks and the varying pleas and indictments; Mueller still hasn’t produced a single collusion indictment.

It’s much easier to pick Manafort’s lock than to prove Hillary Clinton’s conspiracy theory.

What Mueller did was harass a bunch of already shady characters into pleading guilty on minor charges, some, like lying to the FBI, created by his own investigation. All he had to do was get his team of Obama and Clinton supporters in front of Obama and Clinton judges who would rubber stamp anything.

And the grand jury allegedly looked like a “Bernie Sanders” or “Black Lives Matter” rally with some participants wearing left-wing shirts. There wasn’t a single white male among the 20 jurors. That’s a convenient way to screen out likely Trump supporters and bring in likely Trump opponents.

Blatantly rigging it to a low bar is an admission by Mueller and his team that their case is too weak for prime time. Even now Manafort is suing the DOJ. His lawsuit may go nowhere, but the odds are good that Mueller’s tactics and evidence won’t stand up to serious scrutiny. That’s what happened with key Mueller team member Andrew Weissmann’s assault on Arthur Andersen. It’s also been happening to Preet Bharara’s more recent takedowns of top New York political figures. This is how political prosecutors score fast headlines and fame. It’s not how they win enduring victories in a court of law.

And so Mueller is talking about indicting Manafort again. It’s been done already. And even the media can only pay so much attention when like an aging rocker, Mueller lip syncs to his greatest hits.

Despite all the media cheerleading, Mueller can’t get too close to Trump without his rigged investigation being subjected to serious scrutiny that it can’t withstand. Getting lefty judges and a lefty grand jury to give you whatever you want may fly with the vulnerable and isolated targets he’s been going after.

Governor Andrew Cuomo began his 2018 State of the State address 19 years to the day—and hour—that Kendra Webdale was pushed to her death in front of a subway train by Andrew Goldstein, a man with untreated serious mental illness. Before Cuomo finished his speech, something similar had happened again: mentally ill Andrew Cordero pushed Jacinto Suarez onto the subway tracks in Brooklyn. Suarez, too, died. Kendra’s death led to the adoption of Kendra’s Law, which empowers judges to mandate treatment for the mentally ill who are a danger to themselves or to the community. The death of Jacinto Suarez should lead to further reforms.

While Cuomo didn’t mention Webdale or Kendra’s Law, he did talk about mental illness and the homeless. “Homelessness is on the rise in our cities and worse than ever before,” the governor said. “It pains me personally to acknowledge this reality.” As well it should: Cuomo’s unapologetic embrace of the long-standing bipartisan policy of closing state psychiatric hospitals is increasing both homelessness and incarceration.

The governor recounted his own history on the issue, recalling that he headed Mayor Dinkins’s homeless commission in 1992. I arranged for parents of the seriously mentally ill to testify before that commission. The parents wanted New York to adopt policies that would allow them to get care for their seriously mentally ill children before they became a danger to themselves or others. Cuomo rejected their pleas, siding with the mental health establishment, which has never been willing to take responsibility for the most seriously ill. As Cuomo wrote in the commission’s report, “The Commission considered and rejected a lowering of the standard for involuntary institutionalization as . . . inappropriate and unnecessary.” He noted that sick people could be sent to state hospitals “for months” to be stabilized. But during his tenure as governor, he has closed state psychiatric hospitals, effectively taking that option off the table.

The governor spoke eloquently about the plight of people incapable of taking care of themselves. “While we aggressively protect an individual’s civil liberties, we believe in helping people in need.” Leaving the sick to “fend for themselves is not progressive, charitable or ethical or legal.” Cuomo emphasized the need for more outreach, proclaiming that “some jurisdictions say case law prevents them from helping mentally ill street homeless. If that is their excuse, they should tell us what law stops them from helping sick homeless people and we will change the law this session.” But the governor is being disingenuous: the changes needed are the same ones that Democrats have refused to support in the past, and that he blocked when he headed the mayor’s homeless commission. These proposals have been made multiple times in recent years by State Senator Catharine Young, and more recently were included in the campaign platform of Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis when she ran for mayor of New York City.

The United States sits on more than a decade’s worth of oil and natural gas offshore. In another reversal of President Obama’s policies, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposed Thursday to open up more than 90% of America’s Outer Continental Shelf for potential energy development.

The Interior Department’s plan would expand the areas under consideration for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It would also open up the Pacific Coast from Washington to California, the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and nearly all of the waters surrounding Alaska. The proposal will go through two more rounds of public comment, and no doubt some revisions, but when finalized the expanded lease sales could begin as early as 2019.

The proposal would enhance U.S. energy security while raising billions in federal revenue. In the past decade, thanks to the fracking revolution, the U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia in oil production and Russia in natural gas. America and its allies are now far less dependent on energy from international disruptors and despots.