This Barack Obama quote about Donald Trump is now more terrifying than ever - Independent

This Barack Obama quote about Donald Trump is now more terrifying than ever

Posted 20/12/2017

by Louis Doré, Josh Withey in people

UPVOTE

Donald Trump has been President of the United States of America for one year.

Let that one sink in.

After he was elected, people in the US were googling how to emigrate to Canada to such an extent that the department website crashed.

There were, and are, regular protests up and down the country and there is an exceedingly active campaign to have the man impeached.

People are terrified about what Mr Trump might do in relation to North Korea, the economy and the environment and it's not hard to see why,

This Barack Obama quote can go a long way to explaining the ongoing panic.

During the last few days of campaigning in 2016, it was reported that a Trump staffer confiscated his Twitter, given his laissez-faire stance with logic and tact.

President Obama commented eloquently on this while he was campaigning for Hillary Clinton:

In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control they said we are just going to take away your Twitter. Now, if somebody can't handle a Twitter account, they can't handle the nuclear codes.

If somebody starts tweeting at three in the morning because SNL made fun of you, then you can't handle the nuclear codes.

Well, he's had the nuclear codes for around 100 days now. So far, so good... Right?

Bitcoin Drops Below $8,500 as Cryptocurrency Misery Continues- Bloomberg

Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

Bitcoin Drops Below $8,500 as Cryptocurrency Misery Continues

By Eric Lam

February 2, 2018, 7:16 PM GMT+11

From

Bitcoin tumbled below $8,500 as a miserable 2018 continued for cryptocurrencies, with investors confronting a mounting list of concerns about the future of the industry.

Bitcoin dropped 8 percent to $8,378 at 8:05 a.m. in London, the lowest since Nov. 24 according to consolidated Bloomberg pricing. Rival coins Ripple, Ether and Litecoin tumbled at least 11 percent as losses continued to spread across cryptocurrencies.

Since reaching a record high of $19,511 on Dec. 18 shortly after the introduction of regulated futures contracts in the U.S., Bitcoin has wiped out more than half its value amid waves of negative news. Setbacks included escalating regulatory threats from authorities around the world including India, South Korea, China and the U.S., a record $500 million heist at Japanese exchange Coincheck Inc., fears of price manipulation and Facebook’s ban on cryptocurrency ads.

Japanese authorities raided Coincheck’s offices Friday morning, a week after the robbery, hauling out documents and computers as evidence. The inspection was conducted to ensure security for users, Finance Minister Taro Aso said.

Bitcoin Is Falling Fast, Losing More Than Half its Value in Six Weeks - Wall Street Journal

MARKETS

Bitcoin Is Falling Fast, Losing More Than Half its Value in Six Weeks

Selloff triggered by expanding regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies

A client at the electronic signboard of a cryptocurrency exchange in Seoul last month. South Korea is among the governments clamping down on digital currency trading, leading bitcoin’s price to tumble.

By Steven Russolillo and Kenan Machado

Feb. 2, 2018 2:28 a.m. ET

Bitcoin plunged below $9,000 on Friday, extending its sharp rout since the start of the year in a selloff triggered by a widening regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

The digital currency has now fallen more than 55% from an all-time high of close to $20,000 in December, according to research site CoinDesk Inc. That marks bitcoin’s third biggest drop over the past five years: It fell 76% in the spring of 2013, and 85% from November 2013 to January 2015.

Bitcoin’s sharp swings illustrate just how much the digital currency remains a highly illiquid and volatile investment, particularly relative to stock, bond or fiat currency markets.

In its nine-year history, it has had five peak-to-trough declines of more than 70% apiece, said Charlie Bilello, director of research at New York advisory firm Pension Partners. It fell 94% in less than a month in 2010—and again over a five-month stretch in 2011—but both times bounced back.

The recent decline in some regards feels more severe, as the magnitude of the dollar price drop offers a dose of reality to new investors who poured money into cryptocurrencies during last year’s frenzied rally. Many were drawn to the prospect of investing in currencies outside the control of central banks and governments, but now are having to succumb to market forces.

“Headlines for crypto have been mostly negative lately,” Thomas Lee, managing partner at New York-based Fundstrat Global Advisors, wrote in a note to clients. “It has been a terrible few weeks, but the fundamental positive story for crypto remains intact,” Mr. Lee added, referring to strong millennial interest in cryptocurrencies.

As bitcoin has emerged from the underground world of nerds and criminals to become a mainstream investment, the risk of hacks and scandals has also blossomed. What's a government to do? The WSJ's Steven Russolillo travels the world (sort of) to see how regulators are responding to the remarkable rise of cryptocurrencies. Video: Sharon Shi and Crystal Tai

Robinhood, an online trading app that targets young people, earlier this week said more than one million people joined its wait list to trade cryptocurrencies after it announced plans to offer crypto trading services.

But regulatory scrutiny is behind much of the reason for bitcoin’s sudden fall. India is the latest country to crack down on the cryptocurrency market, following in the footsteps of China and South Korea. That pressure—and its market impact—shows that governments are turning out to be much harder to circumvent than crypto adovates once thought.

Bitcoin fell 28% in January, its steepest monthly decline in three years, and is still falling. It recently traded around $8,400, according to CoinDesk.

The current mood is a far cry from the end of last year, when cryptocurrency investment mania hit feverish levels. A popular bitcoin-services company called Coinbase briefly drew some 100,000 new customers per day around Thanksgiving, as bitcoin approached $10,000, up from under $1,000 at the start of 2017.

Prices more than doubled from there, peaking at $19,783.21 on Dec. 17. Then came a six-week slide.

Alex Beene, a 30-year-old from Nashville, cashed out as the decline accelerated. He said he recently sold all his bitcoin, locking in a profit of over $60,000.

Mr. Beene, who writes children’s books and works in the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said he bought most of his bitcoin in September, before prices surged over 500% in the following months.

“You’d wake up to $5,000 to $10,000 gains on consecutive mornings,” he said. “It was like a money train that wouldn’t end, but you could tell [it] wasn’t going to last.”

It didn’t.

Mr. Beene did keep some litecoin—an alternative digital currency—in his portfolio. The price of litecoin is down more than 60% from its December high, according to research site CoinMarketCap.

He called the weeks-long crypto selloff “a scary scenario.”

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that the government doesn’t recognize digital money as legal tender and would “take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system.”

Vaibhav Parikh, partner at Indian law firm Nishith Desai Associates, said some people might have misinterpreted, wrongly concluding the government was banning bitcoin.

“The Indian government said it will only crack down on the use of bitcoin for illegal activities and not on the currency itself,” he said.

Other governments, particularly in Asia, have taken stringent approaches to cryptocurrency. South Korea is implementing new legislation aimed at cooling its red-hot bitcoin market. China has gone even further, ordering cryptocurrency exchanges to close and moving toward limiting bitcoin mining operations.

In Japan, $530 million of a cryptocurrency called NEM was swiped in a major heist on the exchange Coincheck Inc. In the U.S., regulators have warned of fraud in so-called initial coin offerings, a new form of fundraising that has attracted billions of dollars.

Even Facebook Inc. is cracking down. The social media giant said this week that it would stop running ads promoting cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

“I don’t think this is the end of the line for cryptos, but I’m certainly not touching any until more stability can be reached,” Mr. Beene said.

Write to Steven Russolillo at steven.russolillo@wsj.com and Kenan Machado at Kenan.Machado@wsj.com.

Trump memo: Ryan plays down impact on Russia inquiry - BBC News

2/2/2018

Trump memo: Ryan plays down impact on Russia inquiry

All you need to know about the Trump-Russia investigation

A top US Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, has played down the potential impact of publishing a memo about FBI activities during the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump is expected to approve releasing the secret memo, which suggests the FBI abused its powers to spy on one of his aides.

Mr Ryan denied the memo was aimed at undermining a federal inquiry into the Trump campaign's links to Russia.

Congress had a duty to see surveillance powers were used correctly, he said.

He was speaking after Democrats portrayed the memo, commissioned by the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee (HIC) Devin Nunes, as an attempt to derail Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

James Comey, who led the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) at the time of the election and who was sacked by the new president, has suggested that the agency is being subjected to a witch hunt.

"American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up," he said in a tweet. "Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy [a US senator notorious for his crusade against suspected Communists in the 1950s]."

@Comey

All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.

9:51 AM - Feb 2, 2018

The 'secret memo' intriguing Washington

All you need to know about Trump Russia story

What is in the secret memo?

Approved by the HIC on Monday, the document reportedly accuses the FBI and justice department of misleading a judge in March of last year while seeking to extend a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, who was a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.

Carter Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, 12 December 2016Image copyrightREUTERS

Image caption

Carter Page has testified to Congress about his meetings with Russians

The memo is said to argue the FBI and justice department did not tell the judge that some of their justification for the warrant relied on a much-disputed Trump-Russia dossier.

Compiled by a former British intelligence agent, that dossier was financed in part through the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to dig up dirt on Mr Trump.

Unnamed sources told Reuters news agency the Republican memo was misleading because all the dossier excerpts used in the FBI warrant application were independently confirmed by US intelligence.

Mr Page testified before a congressional committee in November that he had met Russian government officials during a trip to Moscow in July 2016.

Who's who in the drama to end all dramas?

The Trump-Russia saga in 200 words

How are Republicans defending the memo?

"What this memo is, is Congress doing its job in conducting legitimate oversight over a very unique law, Fisa [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]," Mr Ryan said.

Aides to Republican Devin Nunes wrote the secret memo

"And, if mistakes were made and if individuals did something wrong, then it is our job, as the legislative branch of the government, to conduct oversight over the executive branch if abuses were made.

"What this is not, is an indictment on our institutions, of our justice system. This memo is not [an] indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn the Mueller investigation, or the deputy attorney general [Rod Rosenstein]."

However, another Republican member of the House who read the memo, Jeff Duncan, predicted in a tweet that the memo would shake the FBI "down to its core".

It would, he said, show "Americans just how the agency was weaponised" by officials from Barack Obama's administration and the Democratic Party to "target political adversaries".

@RepJeffDuncan

Having read “The Memo,” the FBI is right to have “grave concerns” - as it will shake the organization down to its core - showing Americans just how the agency was weaponized by the Obama officials/DNC/HRC to target political adversaries.

5:32 AM - Feb 2, 2018

What are Democrats saying?

Congressional Democratic leaders called on Thursday for Mr Nunes' immediate removal as chairman of the HIC.

The HIC's top Democrat, Adam Schiff, accused Republicans of amending the memo after it was approved.

He said Mr Nunes had sent the White House a version of the memo that had been "materially altered".

However, an unnamed Republican aide said the amendments were grammatical changes and "minor edits", including two tweaks requested by the FBI and by Democrats.

Why is the Department of Justice objecting?

The agency, which oversees the FBI, has warned that the memo's release could jeopardise underlying intelligence used to draft it.

It could also damage the arrangement under which US intelligence agencies brief lawmakers on secrets, with the understanding they will not end up in the public domain.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by President Trump, said on Thursday he would issue a rebuttal if the document was released.

The FBI has already voiced "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy".

What happens next?

While President Trump is expected to approve the memo's release, the exact method for publishing it is "still being figured out", the Associated Press news agency reports.

As president, Mr Trump has the power to declassify the document himself and either release it or hand it to Congress to release.

San Juan mayor: Trump's words on Puerto Rico are 'utter hypocrisy' - CNN Politics

San Juan mayor: Trump's words on Puerto Rico are 'utter hypocrisy'

By Alexandra King, CNN

Updated 0512 GMT (1312 HKT) February 1, 2018

Puerto Rico mayor: Trump's words are 'hypocrisy'

Puerto Rico mayor: Trump's words are 'hypocrisy' 09:38

(CNN)San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz didn't mince her words Wednesday when asked about President Donald Trump's pledges of support to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico during his State of the Union speech, denouncing them as "hypocrisy."

"To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, California and everywhere else -- we are with you, we love you, and we will pull through together," Trump said Tuesday.

But asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour about Trump's comments, Yulín Cruz said, "The President has not been with the people of Puerto Rico," and that his words were an "utter statement of hypocrisy."

"Thirty-five percent of our people do not have electricity. Our children are going to school only part time. Half a million homes are totally disrupted, either need to be rebuilt completely or need to have their roof put back on," she said of the damage from hurricanes Irma and Maria, which left more than 3 million Puerto Ricans in need of assistance.

In September, Trump repeatedly criticized Cruz on Twitter after she accused the government of abandoning Puerto Rico. It's clear there's still no love lost between the two. As far as Yulín Cruz is concerned, she told Amanpour, Trump "speaks out of both sides of his mouth."

"On the one hand, he says he wants to help Puerto Rico. On the other hand, he imposed a 20% income tax on every good and service that comes from Puerto Rico into the United States. On the one hand, he says we will be with you for the long run. And on the other hand, the [Food and Drug Administration] is trying to convince pharmaceutical companies to leave Puerto Rico," she told Amanpour.

"He says he cares and he came here and threw paper towels at us," she continued, referring to Trump's visit to the city of Guaynabo in October. "And on the other hand, he doesn't provide his administration with a clear set of goals to help Puerto Rico."

Yulín Cruz also slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which announced plans this week to halt new shipments of food and water to the island by the end of January.

"FEMA said mission accomplished. I do not know what mission they have accomplished, Certainly, it wasn't the mission of doing what they were supposed to do," Yulín Cruz said.

The agency said Wednesday that distribution of supplies already stockpiled on the island will continue.

Commentary: On trade, America can’t be first if it doesn’t compete - Reuters

FEBRUARY 1, 2018 / 7:23 AM / A DAY AGO

Commentary: On trade, America can’t be first if it doesn’t compete

Trevor Kincaid

Around the world countries are working overtime to get an economic edge by striking new trade deals. The United States, meanwhile, sits on the sidelines. President Donald Trump’s protectionist approach and laser-focus on China may have played well on the stump, but it will leave the American workers who ushered him into office at a disadvantage.

President Donald Trump promised strong enforcement of U.S. trade rules during his first State of the Union address, January 30, 2018. Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (right) applaud behind him. REUTERS/Win McNamee/Pool

The Trump administration is right to keep an eye on China. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump again promised “strong enforcement of our trade rules.” But while trade enforcement is important, it’s only one aspect of a robust American trade policy. What the president needs to do now is focus on a new kind of global competition that is undercutting opportunities for America.

Barely over a year ago, the United States was rewriting the rules for the global trading system and pressuring China to play fair or risk being left out. President Barack Obama’s final trade policy agenda outlined the administration’s strategy, which has since become the blueprint for other nations including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union: “If America leads on trade, we can become the world’s production platform of choice: the premier location for investing, doing business and making things to serve both the U.S. market and the rest of the world.”

The logic is simple. By combining a global network of free trade agreements with America’s strengths – a highly-skilled workforce, affordable energy, a stable regulatory framework, and the rule of law – states from Ohio to Oregon could become prime spots for new economic opportunity and investment. The increased investment – and the jobs that followed – would lead to higher wages and sustainable long-term growth.

That strategy was anchored in the TPP and a formalized economic relationship with the European Union, which would improve trade efficiency and remove red tape between the world’s two largest economies. By firmly putting the United States at the center of a web of international trade agreements, American farmers, manufacturers, and service providers would be in a position to seize growth opportunities around the world.

Trump put a stop to that effort in his first week in office, but U.S. neighbors and competitors have spent the past 12 months picking up where Washington left off.

Canada and Mexico are pursuing aggressive trade agendas that could position them to out-compete the United States for the high-paying jobs that have long been the reward of international investment. Additionally, both countries are within the 11-nation Asia-Pacific trade agreement that was concluded this past week, the same agreement the Trump administration withdrew the United States from a year ago.

NAFTA negotiators, from left: Mexico's Ildefonso Guajardo, Canada's Chrystia Freeland and the U.S.'s Robert Lighthizer in Montreal, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

Canada is making forays into China, has expressed an interest in pursuing a regional free trade agreement in Southeast Asia, and recently concluded a comprehensive agreement with the EU. If successful in these endeavors, Canada will have secured or updated trade agreements with more than 40 countries.

Meanwhile, Mexico is pursuing a deal of its own with the EU, and has its eyes on the horizon for other opportunities that will expand their network of trade agreements. The Trump administration’s decision to abdicate America’s leadership role in the global trading system, and its flirtation with NAFTA withdrawal, has pushed Washington’s third-largest trading partner toward China – a move that should concern Americans.

EU trade negotiators in Brussels have seized on the opening and are busy updating many existing agreements, while trying to conclude new deals in South America, New Zealand, and Australia. They want to make the EU the center of the largest trade network in the world – an ambition that may sound familiar.

The Majestic Maersk, one of the world's largest container ships, is surrounded by cargo in Shanghai. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said China 'is moving closer to center stage' on trade. REUTERS/Aly Song

The U.S. is being left behind only because Trump has chosen not to compete.

Washington’s arsenal is not limited to tactical weapons and “red buttons;” in reality, it includes a sweeping array of resources – few of which are more powerful than its economic might. Trade agreements are tools that shape globalization. It is essential for U.S. national and economic security to use these tools and lead globally by setting the rules of the road for international commerce. If it doesn’t, China and others will write the rules for Americans.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had both economic and military security in mind when he urged the United States to become the “great arsenal of democracy,” and admonished Americans to approach non-combat challenges with “the same sense of urgency, same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.”

America’s post-war leadership role in the world has never been challenged so directly from friends and foes alike. Chinese President Xi Jinping has declared a new era of Chinese ascendance, stating, “It [this] will be an era that sees China moving closer to center stage.” His timing is calculated, not coincidental.

Trump spent his first year in office turning inward and forfeiting the field. The world is sprinting ahead, while the United States is in reverse. The president would be wise to look outward in his second year, and work with U.S. allies around the world to beat China at this critical game. That reset starts by demonstrating the flexibility and creativity to conclude NAFTA modernization quickly, resuming a leadership posture through agreements like TPP, and addressing structural challenges at the World Trade Organization. That is the only way America finishes first.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevor Kincaid was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Public Affairs in the Obama administration and is a member of the Washington International Trade Association; he previously served in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. @tkincaid

It Appears Yet Another Trump Staffer Is Ready to Sing for Mueller - Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )

/ RUSSIA PROBE

February 1, 2018

It Appears Yet Another Trump Staffer Is Ready to Sing for Mueller

By

Margaret Hartmann

@MargHartmann

He’s listening. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

When we learned at the end of October that two former Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, had been indicted and a third, George Papadopoulos, had cut a plea deal, it was widely interpreted as a signal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to other potential witnesses.

“Oh man, they couldn’t have sent a message any clearer if they’d rented a revolving neon sign in Times Square,’’ Patrick Cotter, a white-collar defense lawyer, told the Washington Post at the time. “And the message isn’t just about Manafort. It’s a message to the next five guys they talk to. And the message is: ‘We are coming, and we are not playing, and we are not bluffing.’’’

It appears they heard Mueller, loud and clear. About a month later, former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a deal to cooperate with the special counsel. Now the New York Times reports that yet another former Trump staffer is ready to sing: Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team before resigning in July.

Mueller’s team is said to be looking into the White House response to reports of Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. During a flight on Air Force One last July, Trump and White House communications director Hope Hicks reportedly led the drafting of a misleading statement suggesting that the meeting was about Russian adoptions.

Corallo recently received an interview request from Mueller, and is expected to speak with the special counsel in the next two weeks. The Times reports that he’s planning to share some information that Mueller can add to his long list of potential obstruction of justice:

Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to the three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Ms. Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting — in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians — “will never get out.” That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice, the people said.

Shortly after Donald Trump Jr. released the statement drafted on Air Force One, Corallo, who was not involved in that discussion, publicly suggested that the Trump Tower meeting might have been a Democratic setup to make the Trump team look like they were colluding with Russia. The next day, Corallo and Hicks argued about the response in a conference call with the president. Per the Times:

In Mr. Corallo’s account — which he provided contemporaneously to three colleagues who later gave it to the Times — he told both Mr. Trump and Ms. Hicks that the statement drafted aboard Air Force One would backfire because documents would eventually surface showing that the meeting had been set up for the Trump campaign to get political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians.

According to his account, Ms. Hicks responded that the emails “will never get out” because only a few people had access to them. Mr. Corallo, who worked as a Justice Department spokesman during the George W. Bush administration, told colleagues he was alarmed not only by what Ms. Hicks had said — either she was being naïve or was suggesting that the emails could be withheld from investigators — but also that she had said it in front of the president without a lawyer on the phone and that the conversation could not be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Corallo reportedly cut off the call when Trump started asking about the documents, telling him he needed to speak to his legal team. He then jotted down notes about the call, notified the legal team about the conversation, and brought his concerns to Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist at the time.

Corallo told the paper on Wednesday that he doesn’t dispute any of the information provided by his colleagues. However, Hicks released a rare statement denying his claims.

“As most reporters know, it’s not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media. But this warrants a response,” said her lawyer, Robert P. Trout. “She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”

Mark Corallo, holding a beverage, leaves a press conference with former Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz on June 8, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

This development is seriously bad for Team Trump, for a number of reasons. First, while the Trump team often stresses that it’s not a crime to lie to the media, if Hicks did suggest that evidence could be withheld or destroyed, that could help prosecutors establish intent in an obstruction case.

Second, it may mean that Hicks is in more serious trouble. If she is, in fact, as naïve or deceitful as the Corallo story suggests, did she say anything incriminating when she was interviewed by Mueller’s team in December? In Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff reported that in response to the bungled Trump Tower meeting response, Bannon shouted at Hicks that she needed to get a lawyer.

“You don’t know what you are doing,” Bannon reportedly shouted. “You don’t know how much trouble you are in … You are as dumb as a stone!”

Wolff also reported that Corallo quit because he believed the Air Force One meeting amounted to obstruction of justice, which the Times report seems to confirm. That brings us to the third issue for Team Trump: new fears of disloyalty. It’s actually not that shocking that Corallo would rat on his former White House colleagues. Last summer the Times noted that shortly before he was hired, the longtime conservative posted a number of tweets criticizing President Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner. There was also this comment about Mueller, whose time leading the FBI overlaps with Corallo’s tenure at the Justice Department:

Mark Corallo

@MarkCorallo1

Bob is the best. Period. If the facts merit, he'll recommend charging. More importantly, if there's nothing there, he won't. https://twitter.com/andrewcmccarthy/status/865017851484176384 …

9:12 PM - May 18, 2017

More recently Corallo accused some on Mueller’s team of “not just hyperpartisanship, but what seems to be actual efforts to go after Trump and his associates without the objectivity that is required of prosecutors and investigators,” but he still said Trump firing Mueller would be a “colossal mistake.”

Even if what Corallo actually tells Mueller doesn’t amount to anything, his reported plan to spill new information is likely to raise fears of disloyalty among White House staffers, as well as with the president himself. And as we’ve learned, when Trump gets fixated on the loyalty of his subordinates, nothing good comes of it.