The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to Science - TIME

The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to sscienceScience

Eric Barker

Dec 16, 2015

So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery.

Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy.

Alex Korb is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA and author of The Upward Spiral.

So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day…

The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to Science

Eric Barker

Dec 16, 2015

So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery.

Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy.

Alex Korb is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA and author of The Upward Spiral.

So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day…

Play Video

1) Listen To Music From The Happiest Time In Your Life

Music affects the brain in an interesting way: it can remind you of places you have listened to it before.

Were you happiest in college? Play the music you loved then and it can transport you to that happier place and boost your mood. Here’s Alex:

One of the strong effects of music comes from its ability to remind us of previous environments in which we were listening to that music. That’s really mediated by this one limbic structure called the hippocampus which is really important in a thing called “context dependent memory.” Let’s say college was the happiest time of your life. If you start listening to the music that you were listening to at that time, it can help you feel more connected to that happier time in your life and makes it more present.

I hope you weren’t happiest in elementary school because it’s going to be weird if you’re playing the Barney song or the Sesame Street theme around the house.

(To learn more about what the music you love says about you, click here.)

Now you can’t listen to music everywhere you go. What does neuroscience say you should do when you have to take those earbuds out?

2) Smile — And Wear Sunglasses

The brain isn’t always very smart. Sometimes your mind is getting all this random info and it isn’t sure how to feel. So it looks around for clues. This is called “biofeedback.” Here’s Alex:

Biofeedback is just the idea that your brain is always sensing what is happening in your body and it reviews that information to decide how it should feel about the world.

You feel happy and that makes you smile. But it works both ways: when you smile, your brain can detect this and say, “I’m smiling. That must mean I’m happy.”

So happiness makes you smile, but smiling can also produce happiness. Feeling down? Smile anyway. “Fake it until you make it” can work. Here’s Alex:

That’s part of the “fake it until you make it” strategy because when your brain senses, “Oh, I’m frowning,” then it assumes, “Oh, I must not be feeling positive emotions.” Whereas when it notices you flexing those muscles on the side of the mouth it thinks, “I must be smiling. Oh, we must be happy.” When you start to change the emotions that you’re showing on your face, that changes how your brain interprets a lot of ambiguous stimuli. Since most stimuli that we experience is ambiguous, if you start to push the probability in the positive direction then that’s going to have a really beneficial effect.

fIFQFETZHKXUM

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PSYCHOLOGY

The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to Science

Eric Barker

Dec 16, 2015

So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery.

Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy.

Alex Korb is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA and author of The Upward Spiral.

So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day…

Play Video

1) Listen To Music From The Happiest Time In Your Life

Music affects the brain in an interesting way: it can remind you of places you have listened to it before.

Were you happiest in college? Play the music you loved then and it can transport you to that happier place and boost your mood. Here’s Alex:

One of the strong effects of music comes from its ability to remind us of previous environments in which we were listening to that music. That’s really mediated by this one limbic structure called the hippocampus which is really important in a thing called “context dependent memory.” Let’s say college was the happiest time of your life. If you start listening to the music that you were listening to at that time, it can help you feel more connected to that happier time in your life and makes it more present.

I hope you weren’t happiest in elementary school because it’s going to be weird if you’re playing the Barney song or the Sesame Street theme around the house.

(To learn more about what the music you love says about you, click here.)

Now you can’t listen to music everywhere you go. What does neuroscience say you should do when you have to take those earbuds out?

2) Smile — And Wear Sunglasses

The brain isn’t always very smart. Sometimes your mind is getting all this random info and it isn’t sure how to feel. So it looks around for clues. This is called “biofeedback.” Here’s Alex:

Biofeedback is just the idea that your brain is always sensing what is happening in your body and it reviews that information to decide how it should feel about the world.

You feel happy and that makes you smile. But it works both ways: when you smile, your brain can detect this and say, “I’m smiling. That must mean I’m happy.”

So happiness makes you smile, but smiling can also produce happiness. Feeling down? Smile anyway. “Fake it until you make it” can work. Here’s Alex:

That’s part of the “fake it until you make it” strategy because when your brain senses, “Oh, I’m frowning,” then it assumes, “Oh, I must not be feeling positive emotions.” Whereas when it notices you flexing those muscles on the side of the mouth it thinks, “I must be smiling. Oh, we must be happy.” When you start to change the emotions that you’re showing on your face, that changes how your brain interprets a lot of ambiguous stimuli. Since most stimuli that we experience is ambiguous, if you start to push the probability in the positive direction then that’s going to have a really beneficial effect.

https://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/pcs/click?xai=AKAOjssT752BgTqXE2HckwTfe-gU1u3wJRNVJYtKtTiqyUWQRN338w78-AKbp8bnQNkVabf5eAxn9BTyy0lF8KkS1M2uqAn2UveN_gEkckjzvJ9mrm2hdp7Edelg2yHTF3gDPsVxTB5aehmx2oFOLeC9c3VbMwLD06kYSLKYcZi95kg466NMCpXKMBoScrtpsaIOzsuszMXeVB7lzw_UdDvj22cvZy0&sig=Cg0ArKJSzE6a3r0RiQm6EAE&urlfix=1&adurl=https://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=brd&FlightID=20529541&Page=&PluID=0&Pos=1257849450" target="_blank">https://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=bsr&FlightID=20529541&Page=&PluID=0&Pos=1257849450" border=0 width=300 height=250>

In fact, research shows smiling gives the brain as much pleasure as 2000 bars of chocolate, or $25,000.

And so what’s this about sunglasses? Bright light makes you squint. Squinting looks a lot like being worried. So guess what biofeedback that produces? Yup. Your brain can misinterpret that as being unhappy.

Sunglasses kill the squint and can help tell your brain, “Hey, everything is okay.” Here’s Alex:

When you’re looking at bright lights you have this natural reaction to squint. But that often has the unintended effect of you flexing this particular muscle, the “corrugator supercilii.” Putting on sunglasses means you don’t have to squint and therefore you’re not contracting this muscle and it stops making your brain think, “Oh my God, I must be worried about something.” It’s really just a simple little interruption of that feedback loop.

So smile. And wear those sunglasses. They can make you look cool and make you happier.

(For more on how to be happier and more successful, click here.)

So you have your music playing, you’re smiling and wearing your sunglasses. But you can still be stressed about things. What should you think about to kill your worries and keep yourself happy?

3) Thinking About Goals Changes How You See The World

And I mean, literally. Researchers flashed a bunch of circles on a screen in front of study subjects. One of the circles was always slightly different than the others. It was brighter or smaller, etc.

But when they told people to prepare to point at or try to grab the circles something crazy happened…

If they thought about pointing at the circles, they became better at noticing the brighter circle.

If they were told to think about grabbing a circle, it was easier for them to identify the smaller circle.

fIFQFETZHKXUM

The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to Science

Eric Barker

Dec 16, 2015

So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery.

Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy.

Alex Korb is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA and author of The Upward Spiral.

So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day…

1) Listen To Music From The Happiest Time In Your Life

Music affects the brain in an interesting way: it can remind you of places you have listened to it before.

Were you happiest in college? Play the music you loved then and it can transport you to that happier place and boost your mood. Here’s Alex:

One of the strong effects of music comes from its ability to remind us of previous environments in which we were listening to that music. That’s really mediated by this one limbic structure called the hippocampus which is really important in a thing called “context dependent memory.” Let’s say college was the happiest time of your life. If you start listening to the music that you were listening to at that time, it can help you feel more connected to that happier time in your life and makes it more present.

I hope you weren’t happiest in elementary school because it’s going to be weird if you’re playing the Barney song or the Sesame Street theme around the house.

(To learn more about what the music you love says about you, click here.)

Now you can’t listen to music everywhere you go. What does neuroscience say you should do when you have to take those earbuds out?

2) Smile — And Wear Sunglasses

The brain isn’t always very smart. Sometimes your mind is getting all this random info and it isn’t sure how to feel. So it looks around for clues. This is called “biofeedback.” Here’s Alex:

Biofeedback is just the idea that your brain is always sensing what is happening in your body and it reviews that information to decide how it should feel about the world.

You feel happy and that makes you smile. But it works both ways: when you smile, your brain can detect this and say, “I’m smiling. That must mean I’m happy.”

So happiness makes you smile, but smiling can also produce happiness. Feeling down? Smile anyway. “Fake it until you make it” can work. Here’s Alex:

That’s part of the “fake it until you make it” strategy because when your brain senses, “Oh, I’m frowning,” then it assumes, “Oh, I must not be feeling positive emotions.” Whereas when it notices you flexing those muscles on the side of the mouth it thinks, “I must be smiling. Oh, we must be happy.” When you start to change the emotions that you’re showing on your face, that changes how your brain interprets a lot of ambiguous stimuli. Since most stimuli that we experience is ambiguous, if you start to push the probability in the positive direction then that’s going to have a really beneficial effect.

https://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/pcs/click?xai=AKAOjssT752BgTqXE2HckwTfe-gU1u3wJRNVJYtKtTiqyUWQRN338w78-AKbp8bnQNkVabf5eAxn9BTyy0lF8KkS1M2uqAn2UveN_gEkckjzvJ9mrm2hdp7Edelg2yHTF3gDPsVxTB5aehmx2oFOLeC9c3VbMwLD06kYSLKYcZi95kg466NMCpXKMBoScrtpsaIOzsuszMXeVB7lzw_UdDvj22cvZy0&sig=Cg0ArKJSzE6a3r0RiQm6EAE&urlfix=1&adurl=https://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=brd&FlightID=20529541&Page=&PluID=0&Pos=1257849450" target="_blank">https://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=bsr&FlightID=20529541&Page=&PluID=0&Pos=1257849450

" border=0 width=300 height=250>

In fact, research shows smiling gives the brain as much pleasure as 2000 bars of chocolate, or $25,000.

And so what’s this about sunglasses? Bright light makes you squint. Squinting looks a lot like being worried. So guess what biofeedback that produces? Yup. Your brain can misinterpret that as being unhappy.

Sunglasses kill the squint and can help tell your brain, “Hey, everything is okay.” Here’s Alex:

When you’re looking at bright lights you have this natural reaction to squint. But that often has the unintended effect of you flexing this particular muscle, the “corrugator supercilii.” Putting on sunglasses means you don’t have to squint and therefore you’re not contracting this muscle and it stops making your brain think, “Oh my God, I must be worried about something.” It’s really just a simple little interruption of that feedback loop.

So smile. And wear those sunglasses. They can make you look cool and make you happier.

(For more on how to be happier and more successful, click here.)

So you have your music playing, you’re smiling and wearing your sunglasses. But you can still be stressed about things. What should you think about to kill your worries and keep yourself happy?

3) Thinking About Goals Changes How You See The World

And I mean, literally. Researchers flashed a bunch of circles on a screen in front of study subjects. One of the circles was always slightly different than the others. It was brighter or smaller, etc.

But when they told people to prepare to point at or try to grab the circles something crazy happened…

If they thought about pointing at the circles, they became better at noticing the brighter circle.

If they were told to think about grabbing a circle, it was easier for them to identify the smaller circle.

What’s that mean? Having a goal literally changed how they saw the world.

So when you’re feeling stressed or challenged, think about your long-term goals. It gives your brain a sense of control and can release dopamine which will make you feel better and more motivated. Here’s Alex:

The goals and intentions that you set in your prefrontal cortex change the way that your brain perceives the world. Sometimes when we feel like everything is going wrong and we’re not making any progress and everything is awful, you don’t need to change the world, you can just change the way you are perceiving the world and that is going to be enough to make a positive difference. By thinking, “Okay, what is my long term goal? What am I trying to accomplish?” Calling that to mind can actually make it feel rewarding to be doing homework instead of going to the party because then your brain is like, “Oh yeah. I’m working towards that goal. I’m accomplishing something that’s meaningful to me.” Then that can start to release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and that can start to make you feel better about what you’re doing.

(To see the schedule the most successful people follow every day, click here.)

Sometimes you can try all these little tricks and it doesn’t feel like it’s making a bit of difference. That’s often because you’re missing something that’s really key to good brain function…

4) Get Good Sleep

We all know depression messes up how people sleep. But what’s interesting is it’s actually a two way street: bad sleep also causes depression. Here’s Alex:

fIFQFETZHKXUM

The 5 Habits That Will Make You Happy, According to Science

Eric Barker

Dec 16, 2015

So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery.

Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy.

Alex Korb is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA and author of The Upward Spiral.

So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day…

1) Listen To Music From The Happiest Time In Your Life

Music affects the brain in an interesting way: it can remind you of places you have listened to it before.

Were you happiest in college? Play the music you loved then and it can transport you to that happier place and boost your mood. Here’s Alex:

One of the strong effects of music comes from its ability to remind us of previous environments in which we were listening to that music. That’s really mediated by this one limbic structure called the hippocampus which is really important in a thing called “context dependent memory.” Let’s say college was the happiest time of your life. If you start listening to the music that you were listening to at that time, it can help you feel more connected to that happier time in your life and makes it more present.

I hope you weren’t happiest in elementary school because it’s going to be weird if you’re playing the Barney song or the Sesame Street theme around the house.

(To learn more about what the music you love says about you, click here.)

Now you can’t listen to music everywhere you go. What does neuroscience say you should do when you have to take those earbuds out?

2) Smile — And Wear Sunglasses

The brain isn’t always very smart. Sometimes your mind is getting all this random info and it isn’t sure how to feel. So it looks around for clues. This is called “biofeedback.” Here’s Alex:

Biofeedback is just the idea that your brain is always sensing what is happening in your body and it reviews that information to decide how it should feel about the world.

You feel happy and that makes you smile. But it works both ways: when you smile, your brain can detect this and say, “I’m smiling. That must mean I’m happy.”

So happiness makes you smile, but smiling can also produce happiness. Feeling down? Smile anyway. “Fake it until you make it” can work. Here’s Alex:

That’s part of the “fake it until you make it” strategy because when your brain senses, “Oh, I’m frowning,” then it assumes, “Oh, I must not be feeling positive emotions.” Whereas when it notices you flexing those muscles on the side of the mouth it thinks, “I must be smiling. Oh, we must be happy.” When you start to change the emotions that you’re showing on your face, that changes how your brain interprets a lot of ambiguous stimuli. Since most stimuli that we experience is ambiguous, if you start to push the probability in the positive direction then that’s going to have a really beneficial life.

And so what’s this about sunglasses? Bright light makes you squint. Squinting looks a lot like being worried. So guess what biofeedback that produces? Yup. Your brain can misinterpret that as being unhappy.

Sunglasses kill the squint and can help tell your brain, “Hey, everything is okay.” Here’s Alex:

When you’re looking at bright lights you have this natural reaction to squint. But that often has the unintended effect of you flexing this particular muscle, the “corrugator supercilii.” Putting on sunglasses means you don’t have to squint and therefore you’re not contracting this muscle and it stops making your brain think, “Oh my God, I must be worried about something.” It’s really just a simple little interruption of that feedback loop.

So smile. And wear those sunglasses. They can make you look cool and make you happier.

(For more on how to be happier and more successful, click here.)

So you have your music playing, you’re smiling and wearing your sunglasses. But you can still be stressed about things. What should you think about to kill your worries and keep yourself happy?

3) Thinking About Goals Changes How You See The World

And I mean, literally. Researchers flashed a bunch of circles on a screen in front of study subjects. One of the circles was always slightly different than the others. It was brighter or smaller, etc.

But when they told people to prepare to point at or try to grab the circles something crazy happened…

If they thought about pointing at the circles, they became better at noticing the brighter circle.

If they were told to think about grabbing a circle, it was easier for them to identify the smaller circle.

What’s that mean? Having a goal literally changed how they saw the world.

So when you’re feeling stressed or challenged, think about your long-term goals. It gives your brain a sense of control and can release dopamine which will make you feel better and more motivated. Here’s Alex:

The goals and intentions that you set in your prefrontal cortex change the way that your brain perceives the world. Sometimes when we feel like everything is going wrong and we’re not making any progress and everything is awful, you don’t need to change the world, you can just change the way you are perceiving the world and that is going to be enough to make a positive difference. By thinking, “Okay, what is my long term goal? What am I trying to accomplish?” Calling that to mind can actually make it feel rewarding to be doing homework instead of going to the party because then your brain is like, “Oh yeah. I’m working towards that goal. I’m accomplishing something that’s meaningful to me.” Then that can start to release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and that can start to make you feel better about what you’re doing.

(To see the schedule the most successful people follow every day, click here.)

Sometimes you can try all these little tricks and it doesn’t feel like it’s making a bit of difference. That’s often because you’re missing something that’s really key to good brain function…

4) Get Good Sleep

We all know depression messes up how people sleep. But what’s interesting is it’s actually a two way street: bad sleep also causes depression. Here’s Alex:

They took all these people with insomnia and followed them for a few years and it turned out that the people with chronic insomnia were much more likely to develop depression. Depression causes sleep problems but sleep problems are also more likely to lead to depression.

So how do you improve your sleep? Alex has a number of suggestions:

Get bright sunlight in the middle of the day. At night, try and stay in a dimly lit environment. Having a comfortable place to sleep and having a bedtime ritual so that your brain can prepare to go to sleep are also good. Trying to go to sleep at the same time every night and keeping a gratitude journal can also improve your sleep.

(To learn everything you need to know about having the best night’s sleep ever, click here.)

All this little stuff to feel better is good. But if you’re not getting stuff done at work it’s going to be hard to stay happy. What’s neuroscience say about building good habits and conquering procrastination so you can stay smiling?

5) How Neuroscience Beats Procrastination

Your brain isn’t one big ol’ lump of grey goo that’s perfectly organized. Far from it. Think of it a little more like a bunch of your relatives arguing at the dinner table during a holiday get together.

When it comes to the choices you make and the things you do, Alex says there are 3 regions you need to be concerned with. You don’t need to memorize the names. It’s just important to realize they all get a vote:

• The Prefrontal Cortex: The only one thinking about long-term goals like, “We need to prepare that report for work.”
• The Dorsal Striatum: This guy is always voting to do what you’ve done in the past, like, “When it’s time to work we usually start by checking email 9 times, then Facebook, and then watching Netflix.”
• The Nucleus Accumbens: The party animal of the three. “Email, Facebook and Netflix are fun. Work sucks.”

So guess what you end up doing? Yeah… Ouch.

But when you exert effort, the prefrontal cortex can override the other two and do the right thing. Repeat this enough times and you rewire the dorsal striatum: “We usually start reports quickly. I vote we do that again.”

fIFQFETZHKXUM

That’s how the brain builds good habits. So why don’t we do that more often? Often the culprit is stress. Here’s Alex:

I have a friend who always says, “Stress takes the prefrontal cortex offline.” Stress changes the dynamics of that conversation. It weakens the prefrontal cortex. That part of your brain doesn’t have infinite resources. It can’t be eternally vigilant and so while it’s not paying attention, your striatum is like, “Let’s go eat a cookie. Let’s go drink a beer.” Anything that you can do to reduce stress can help strengthen the prefrontal cortex’s control over your habits.

So if you want to build good habits and stop procrastinating, the first thing to do is reduce stress. (The best ways to do that are here.)

Procrastination is often a vicious circle because you delay, then you have less time to complete the project, so you get more stressed, procrastinate more, have even less time, which makes you even more stressed and… well, you get the idea.

So what’s the answer? After a little something to reduce stress, find one small thing you can do to get started. This focuses you and prevents the overwhelm that knocks the prefrontal cortex out of the conversation. Here’s Alex:

When the prefrontal cortex is taken offline by stress we end up doing things that are immediately pleasurable. Instead of getting overwhelmed, ask yourself, “What’s one little thing that I could do now that would move me toward this goal I’m trying to accomplish?” Taking one small step toward it can make it start to feel more manageable.

(To learn 5 weird but effective ways to conquer chronic procrastination, click here.)

Time to round up everything we learned. Alex gave us six great…

Wait. Did I only say “5” in the headline? Okay, you’re getting a bonus. Keep reading for Alex’s #1 easy thing to do to cause an upward spiral of happiness in your life…

Sum Up

Here’s what you can learn from Alex about how neuroscience can bring happiness:

• Listen to music from the happiest time in your life: Let’s hope you had good taste when you were happiest.
• Smile and wear those sunglasses: You don’t have to wear them indoors. That would be dumb.
• Think about your goals: It changes how you see the world and releases happy chemicals in your noggin.
• Get your sleep: Depressed people don’t sleep well. And people who don’t sleep well get depressed.
• Beat procrastination by reducing stress and doing a simple thing to get started: Listen to those happy-era tunes and then assemble all the materials you need to get cranking.

And what’s that #1 thing that Alex says can start an upward spiral of happiness? It’s dead simple:

Go for a walk outside every morning, preferably with a friend.

Yup, that’s it. How can something so incredibly simple be so powerful? Here’s Alex:

I think the simplest way to kick start an upward spiral is to go for a walk outside every morning, and if possible, do it with a friend. The walk engages the exercise system and when you’re walking outside the sunlight you’re exposed to has benefits on the sleep systems and can impact the serotonin system. If you do it everyday, then it starts getting ingrained in the dorsal striatum and becomes a good habit. If you can do it with a friend, that’s even better because you get the social connection.

Right now: share this post with a friend and ask them to join you for a walk tomorrow morning. That’s it. (And wear your sunglasses.)

Go outside. Put one foot in front of the other. Smile with a friend.p 

 And you’re on your way to neuroscientific happiness.

Looks like it really is the simple things in life that bring us joy.

Donald Trump just staked his presidency on 4 words - CNN

Donald Trump just staked his presidency on 4 words

By issuing such a blanket denial, Trump leaves himself very little wiggle room

Trump placed the biggest bet of his political career on Thursday

Washington (CNN) - At a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manual Santos Thursday, President Donald Trump was asked a very simple question: Had he urged then-FBI Director James Comey to slow or stop an FBI investigation into deposed national security adviser Michael Flynn ?

" No, no. Next question Donald Trump responded.

It was over in a flash. But in those four words, Trump staked the viability of his presidency.

Why? Because he directly contradicted the reporting around a memo that Comey had written in the wake of a February 14 meeting in which Trump told him to see if he could find a way to end the Flynn investigation, The New York Times first reported and CNN confirmed.

Both of those things can't be true.

Comey, who was fired by Trump 10 days ago, is expected at some point in the not-too-distant future to come to Congress and testify about his meetings with Trump. And the relevant congressional committees have already requested the February 14 memo as well as any other memos -- and CNN has reported there are more of them -- that Comey wrote about his interactions with Trump.

Between his testimony and the memo(s), Comey's side of the story is going to get out there. And, presuming that what we know of the February 14 memo is true, then Trump's former FBI director will be on record directly disagreeing with the President's version of events.

By issuing such a blanket denial, Trump leaves himself very little wiggle room. In order for Trump to emerge unscathed, there can be no evidence that emerges that props up Comey's side of the story. Anything that shows Trump was not being entirely truthful with his "no, no, next question" response calls into question his credibility on a whole range of issues and could well lead to open revolt from within his own party.

Trump's situation here is not dissimilar to that of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the early Trump converts. After the news broke that two of Christie's top gubernatorial aides had been involved in a political payback ploy that involved closing lanes of traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Christie went on record to say he was totally unaware of any of this plotting.

Had anything come out that proved Christie even slightly wrong in that total denial, it would have been curtains for his political career. It never did -- and Christie survived. (As it was, the Bridgegate scandal badly hamstrung Christie and he never was a real factor in the 2016 race.)

In short: The story of the February 14 meeting is currently a "he said, he said" one. If it never progresses beyond that, Trump will almost certainly survive, politically speaking. There will be plenty of grumbles from Republicans -- many of whom are on the record praising Comey as a trustworthy guy and able public servant -- but short of evidence that tilts the scales in Comey's favor, it will be very hard to abandon Trump.

If, on the other hand, tapes -- like the sort Trump floated he might have of his conversations with Comey -- or any other sort of documented evidence emerges that poke holes in Trump's four-word denial, he and his presidency will be in deep trouble.

Donald Trump is a gambler by nature. Repeatedly during his presidential campaign, and now in the White House, he has rolled the dice and reacted once they settled. But, whether he realized it at the time or not, Trump placed the biggest bet of his political career on Thursday.

Now he waits to see if it pays off -- or if he goes bust.

Here's the real reason why Donald Trump fired James Comey - CNN

Here's the real reason why Donald Trump fired James Comey

Story Highlights

Trump has reversed himself, again, on exactly why he fired former FBI Director James Comey

What we are witnessing is a rare political feat: The flip, flop, re-flip

Washington (CNN) - On Thursday in a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manual Santos, President Donald Trump reversed himself, again, on exactly why he fired former FBI Director James Comey.

"Director Comey was very unpopular with most people," said Trump. "I actually thought when I made that decision -- and I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein."

Er, OK.

Here's the thing: A week before -- to the day! -- Trump sat down with NBC's Lester Holt and said this:

"I was going to fire Comey -- my decision. There is no good time to do it, by the way. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation."

And that, of course, ran directly counter to the argument Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway were making last week: That Trump acted after receiving the Rosenstein memo laying out the case for why Comey should be let go.

What we are witnessing is a rare political feat: The flip, flop, re-flip. (It's sort of like the Triple Lindy.)

The reason for the political acrobatics? Because neither Trump nor the White House want to say -- or think it is politic to say -- the real reason why Trump fired Comey: Because he didn't like him.

Where might that distaste have arisen?

It could have been Comey's ongoing push to get to the bottom of how Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 election and whether any Trump campaign officials colluded with them.

It could have been the reported loyalty pledge Trump sought from Comey in a late January dinner that Comey refused to give.

It could have been Trump's ongoing frustration with the fact that Comey didn't bring an indictment against Hillary Clinton despite the fact that many Republicans believed there was ample evidence to do so.

It could have been that Trump didn't like Comey's flair for the dramatic. (He referred to the fired FBI director as a "showboat" in the Holt interview.)

It could have been that Comey was an Obama pick, not a Trump one.

It could have been all of those things, a combination of some of them or none of them.

The point is still the same. Trump didn't like him.

Which, actually, might have been a semi-defensible reason to let Comey go. Trump could have easily said that he decided to part ways with Comey because the FBI director had just grown too political for his liking in the 2016 campaign and that a fresh start was the best thing for the law enforcement community and the country.

Instead, Trump and his senior officials tried to lay it all at the feet of Rosenstein. Then Trump, always wanting to be seen as decisive, took credit himself. And now, apparently, back to  Rosenstein. 
None of those explanations made that much sense because, well, they weren't the real reason. The real reason was that Trump didn't like Comey and/or was sick of him.

How a Financial Panic Helped Launch the New York Stock Exchange - TIME

How a Financial Panic Helped Launch the New York Stock Exchange

Posted: 17 May 2017 06:00 AM PDT

Long before One World Trade Center towered over Lower Manhattan, an American sycamore or buttonwood tree on Wall Street was the tallest thing in the area, and the center of commerce. It was 225 years ago, May 17, 1792, under that very tree, that 24 stockbrokers and merchants signed the so-called Buttonwood Agreement, establishing the parameters for trading in the first incarnation of the New York Stock Exchange. 

They agreed that they’d only trade with each other and represent the interests of the public, which meant that the confidence that they had in each other was the confidence that they had in the market. In other words, they wouldn’t have to be worrying about selling bad stock or competition over commission rates, so the prices charged would reflect the value of the stock, not some other factor.

The exact text reads:

We the Subscribers, Brokers for the Purchase and Sale of Public Stock, do hereby solemnly promise and pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not buy or sell from this day for any person whatsoever, any kind of Public Stock, at a less rate than one quarter per cent Commission on the Specie value and that we will give a preference to each other in our Negotiations. In Testimony whereof we have set our hands this 17th day of May at New York. 1792.

The trades they made at the time were what would be considered commodities trading, according to Peter Asch, the New York Stock Exchange’s historian. In the late 1700s, available stock was limited to insurance companies, the Bank of New York, the First Bank of the United States and “Hamilton Bonds” that Alexander Hamilton had decided to issue to deal with America’s Revolutionary War debt. (The system was considered risky and criticized for making the wealthy wealthier.)

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The agreement was an attempt to establish some rules after the 1792 financial panic, at which point there had been no rules or safeguards, and a lot of deals were reneged on. The panic had been instigated by the actions of the speculator William Duer, who borrowed to make trades until he found that he couldn’t borrow anymore.

“He was betting that the market was going to go down while everyone else was betting that it was going to go up,” as economic historian Robert E. Wright puts it, until he ran out of money. “He stops making payments, so everyone is out their money and starts wondering who lent to Duer and if those people would make their payments.” The situation was similar, Wright adds, to what happened more recently when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and people started wondering who the firm owed money to. So people panicked, and started selling. The more they sold, the more prices dropped, making people panic even more — until Alexander Hamilton worked with the First Bank of the United States to stop the panic.

Brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement as a way to reestablish confidence and encourage people to start investing again.

“It’s profitable to be in this club, so you’re going to follow the rules because you want to remain in the club,” as Wright describes the rationale. “They might lose on one deal, but being in the club is so lucrative that they know they’ll make it back on another day. When you all know each other, why screw each other?”

Political Turmoil in Washington Leads to Largest Stock Market Drop in 8 Months - TIME Business

Political Turmoil in Washington Leads to Largest Stock Market Drop in 8 Months Posted: 17 May 2017 02:27 PM PDT The growing political drama in Washington rattled Wall Street Wednesday, knocking the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 370 points and giving the stock market its biggest single-day slump in eight months. Investors worried that the headline-fueled political turmoil that has enveloped the White House may hinder President Donald Trump’s plans to cut taxes, roll back government regulations and other aspects of his pro-business agenda. The steep drop ended an unusually long period of calm for the markets, which had been hovering near all-time highs. Financial stocks, which had soared in the months since the election, declined the most as bond yields fell sharply. Bonds, utilities and gold rose as traders shunned riskier assets. The dollar fell. “When you are at these valuations, the market has to reassess whether or not the agenda is actually going to be implemented,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “What you’re seeing is a classic run toward safety.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 index had its biggest drop since September, sliding 43.64 points, or 1.8 percent, to 2,357.03. The Dow lost 372.82 points, or 1.8 percent, to 20,606.93. The Nasdaq composite index, coming off setting two consecutive record highs, gave up 158.63 points, or 2.6 percent, to 6,011.24. Small-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index sank 38.79 points, or 2.8 percent, to 1,355.89. Those companies would stand to benefit even more than large ones from corporate tax cuts Trump is proposing. They also had risen sharply in the months following the election. The sell-off snapped an unusually long period of calm after hitting a series of record highs. On Tuesday the S&P 500, the benchmark favored by professional investors, marked its 15th straight day of moving up or down by less than 0.5 percent. It closed at its latest record high on Monday. Bond prices rose sharply. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.21 percent from 2.33 percent late Tuesday, a large move. The seeds of Wednesday’s steep market sell-off were present late Tuesday, when a published report revealed that Trump allegedly made a personal appeal to now-fired FBI Director James Comey to drop the bureau’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The White House denied the report. Trump had already been facing pointed questions about his discussions with Russian diplomats during which he was reported to have disclosed classified information. “The controversy is not new, but this one really seems to be sticking,” said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. “The Trump economic program is either going to be delayed by this turn of events or possibly be derailed, that’s why investors are acting the way they are.” The latest headlines ratcheted up the market’s unease. The VIX index, a measure of how much volatility investors expect in stocks, rose to its highest level since April 13. Investors shifted into U.S. government bonds, pushing yields lower, and into gold. The precious metal jumped 1.8 percent, climbing $22.30 to settle at $1,258.70 per ounce. Among the hardest-hit stocks Wednesday are in sectors that benefited most from the post-election rally as investors banked on Trump to cut taxes, boost infrastructure spending and relax regulations that affect energy, finance and other businesses. Banks fell sharply as bond yields declined, which will mean lower interest rates on loans. Bank of America slid $1.42, or 5.9 percent, to $22.57. Unease over the potential implications of the latest political fallout in Washington weighed on the dollar Wednesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1150 from $1.1095. The dollar dropped to 111.11 yen from 113.03 yen. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 41 cents, or 0.8 percent, to close at $49.07 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 56 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $52.21 per barrel in London. In other futures trading, natural gas fell 4 cents to $3.19 per 1,000 cubic feet. Wholesale gasoline was little changed at $1.60 per gallon. Heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.53 per gallon. Among other commodities, silver added 16 cents to $16.85 per ounce. Copper was little changed at $2.54 per pound. Markets overseas were also mostly lower. In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 1.4 percent. The CAC 40 in France slid 1.6 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares dipped 0.2 percent. Asian markets mostly fell. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.5 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.2 percent.

House majority leader said in 2016 Trump on Russia payroll - Washington Post

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump

By Adam Entous 

May 17 at 8:16 PM

KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladi­mir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

The remarks remained secret for nearly a year.

[Read the transcript of the conversation among GOP leaders obtained by The Post]

The conversation provides a glimpse at the internal views of GOP leaders who now find themselves under mounting pressure over the conduct of President Trump. The exchange shows that the Republican leadership in the House privately discussed Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and Trump’s relationship to Putin, but wanted to keep their concerns secret. It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally.

The House leadership has so far stood by the White House as it has lurched from one crisis to another, much of the turmoil fueled by contacts between Trump or his associates with Russia.

House Republican leaders have so far resisted calls for the appointment of an independent commission or a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference, though pressure has been mounting on them to do so after Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey and the disclosure that the president shared intelligence with Russian diplomats.

Late Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced he had appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former prosecutor who served as the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, as special counsel to oversee the Russia probe.

[Deputy attorney general appoints special counsel to oversee probe of Russian interference in election]

Evan McMullin, who in his role as policy director to the House Republican Conference participated in the June 15 conversation, said: “It’s true that Majority Leader McCarthy said that he thought candidate Trump was on the Kremlin’s payroll. Speaker Ryan was concerned about that leaking.”

McMullin ran for president last year as an independent and has been a vocal critic of Trump.

When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.”

After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.”

“This was a failed attempt at humor,” Sparks said.

Ken Grubbs, a spokesman for Rohrabacher, said the congressman has been a consistent advocate of “working closer with the Russians to combat radical Islamism. The congressman doesn’t need to be paid to come to such a necessary conclusion.”

When McCarthy voiced his assessment of whom Putin supports, suspicions were only beginning to swirl around Trump’s alleged Russia ties.

At the time, U.S. intelligence agencies knew that the Russians had hacked the DNC and other institutions, but Moscow had yet to start publicly releasing damaging emails through WikiLeaks to undermine Trump’s Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. An FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the presidential election would open the following month, in late July, Comey has said in testimony to Congress.

Trump has sought to play down contacts between his campaign and the Russians, dismissing as a “witch hunt” the FBI and congressional investigations into Russian efforts to aid Trump and any possible coordination between the Kremlin and his associates. Trump denies any coordination with Moscow took place.

Presidential candidate Trump’s embrace of Putin and calls for closer cooperation with Moscow put him at odds with the House Republican caucus, whose members have long advocated a harder line on Russia, with the exception of Rohrabacher and a few others.

Among GOP leaders in the House, McCarthy stood out as a Putin critic who in 2015 called for the imposition of “more severe” sanctions for its actions in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

In May 2016, McCarthy signed up to serve as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention, breaking ranks with Ryan, who said he still was not ready to endorse the candidate. McCarthy’s relationship with Trump became so close that the president would sometimes refer to him as “my Kevin.”

Trump was by then the lone Republican remaining in the contest for the nomination. Though Ryan continued to hold out, Trump picked up endorsements from the remaining GOP leaders in the House, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the majority whip from Louisiana, and Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) — both of whom took part in the June 15 conversation.

Ryan announced on June 2 that he would vote for Trump to help “unite the party so we can win in the fall” but continued to clash with the candidate, including over Putin. While Trump sought to cast Putin as a better leader than then-President Obama, Ryan dubbed him an “aggressor” who didn’t share U.S. interests.

On the same day as Ryan’s endorsement, Clinton stepped up her attacks on Trump over his public statements praising Putin. “If Donald gets his way, they’ll be celebrating in the Kremlin,” she said.

Ukrainian officials were unnerved by Trump’s statements in support of Putin. Republicans, they had believed, were supposed to be tougher on Russia.

When Trump named Paul Manafort as his campaign manager in April 2016, alarm bells in Kiev started ringing even louder. Manafort was already well known in Ukraine because of his influential role as a political consultant to Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s former Kremlin-friendly ruler until a popular uprising forced him to flee to Russia. Manafort had also consulted for a powerful Russian businessman with close ties to the Kremlin.

“Ukraine was, in a sense, a testing ground for Manafort,” said Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets, who became a grudging admirer of Manafort’s skills in the “dark arts” of political stagecraft while Berezovets was working for one of Yanukovych’s political rivals.

At the urging of Manafort, Yanukovych campaigned with populist slogans labeling NATO a “menace” and casting “elites” in the Ukrainian capital as out of touch, Berezovets said. Trump struck similar themes during the 2016 campaign.

The FBI is now investigating whether Manafort, who stepped down as Trump’s campaign manager in August, received off-the-books payments from Yanukovych’s party, U.S. officials said. As part of that investigation, FBI agents recently took possession of a newly discovered document that allegedly details payments totaling $750,000. Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, who first disclosed the new document, declined to comment on his contacts with the FBI.

A spokesman for Manafort has said that Trump’s former campaign manager has not been contacted by the FBI. Manafort has also disputed the authenticity of the newly discovered document.

Groysman, on an official visit to Washington, met separately with Ryan and McCarthy on June 15 at the Capitol.

He told them how the Russians meddled in European politics and called for “unity” in addressing the threat, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Ryan issued a statement after the meeting saying, “the United States stands with Ukraine as it works to rebuild its economy and confront Russian aggression.”

Later, Ryan spoke privately with McCarthy, Rodgers, Scalise and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the deputy whip, among others.

Ryan mentioned his meeting with Groysman, prompting Rodgers to ask: “How are things going in Ukraine?” according to the recording.

The situation was difficult, Ryan said. Groysman, he said, had told him that Russian-backed forces were firing 30 to 40 artillery shells into Ukrainian territory every day. And the prime minister described Russian tactics that include “financing our populists, financing people in our governments to undo our governments.”

Ryan said Russia’s goal was to “turn Ukraine against itself.” Groysman underlined Russia’s intentions, saying, “They’re just going to roll right through us and go to the Baltics and everyone else,” according to Ryan’s summary of the prime minister’s remarks in the recording.

“Yes,” Rodgers said in agreement, noting that the Russians were funding nongovernmental organizations across Europe as part of a wider “propaganda war.”

“Maniacal,” Ryan said. “And guess, guess who’s the only one taking a strong stand up against it? We are.”

Rodgers disagreed. “We’re not . . . we’re not . . . but, we’re not,” she said.

That’s when McCarthy brought the conversation about Russian meddling around to the DNC hack, Trump and Rohrabacher.

“I’ll guarantee you that’s what it is. . . . The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp [opposition] research that they had on Trump,” McCarthy said with a laugh.

Ryan asked who the Russians “delivered” the opposition research to.

“There’s . . . there’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, drawing some laughter. “Swear to God,” McCarthy added.

“This is an off the record,” Ryan said.

Some lawmakers laughed at that.

“No leaks, all right?,” Ryan said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Scalise said.

“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan added.

Andrew Roth in Moscow, Michael Birnbaum in Brussels and Robert Costa in Washington contributed to this report.

Washington Post

What is a Special Counsel ? - Wall Street Journal

What Is a Special Counsel? 

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller will have broad powers, but will be overseen by deputy attorney general

By Jacob Gershman and Joe Palazzolo

May 17, 2017 8:53 p.m. ET

The No. 2 official in the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to oversee an FBI investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tapped former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller III for the job, saying the appointment was “in the public interest.” Mr. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor, will have broad powers to conduct his inquiry, but he still reports to the Justice Department.

Here is a brief look at the role of the special counsel, its level of independence and the restraints on its authority.

What is a special counsel?

Under federal regulations from 1999, the attorney general may appoint a temporary special counsel from outside the Justice Department to conduct a criminal probe into a particularly sensitive matter and to potentially prosecute related wrongdoing. The appointment should be reserved for extraordinary situations when normal protocol is compromised by political conflicts.

Within the first 60 days of the special counsel’s appointment, the appointee must develop a proposed budget for the investigation for the attorney general’s approval. While the special counsel isn’t subject to day-to-day supervision, Mr. Mueller can be asked to report to the attorney general—or in this case, the deputy attorney general, because the attorney general has recused himself—about “any investigative or prosecutorial step.”

Mr. Mueller will have ample time to conduct his investigation. “There appear to be...no time limits on the special counsel’s authority, aside from annual reporting requirements for budgetary purposes,” according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.

How is a special counsel different from a federal prosecutor?

The two roles are very similar. Special counsels are granted the “full power and independent authority to exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney.”

Perhaps the biggest difference is that the special counsel must be selected from outside the U.S. government and be a lawyer “with a reputation for integrity and impartial decision-making.” A special counsel can also recruit an investigative team from either within or outside the Justice Department.

The Justice Department has relied on the regulations just once, when Attorney General Janet Reno in 1999 appointed former Sen. John Danforth to investigate the “Branch Davidian” siege near Waco, Texas.

What is the difference between a special counsel and an independent counsel?

It is the degree of independence. The attorney general, or his acting deputy, retains far more control over the scope of a special investigation, its prosecutorial jurisdiction and its budget. The special counsel may only be removed by the attorney general—in cases of “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause”—although the president can dismiss the attorney general or the deputy attorney general at any time.

An independent counsel, which no longer exists under law, had far more latitude. The position was created after President Richard Nixon’s attempts to derail a criminal investigation of the Watergate scandal. The attorney general could request an independent counsel when allegations of wrongdoing by a high-ranking official arose. The request would be submitted to a judicial panel, which would pick the counsel, define the scope of the inquiry and its duration. The independent counsel could convene grand juries, grant immunity and prosecute any crimes stemming from the probe. The attorney general couldn’t remove the independent counsel except for incapacity or extraordinary impropriety.

The independence was a double-edged sword. During the Clinton administration, the sprawling investigation of the White House by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr led to a backlash from scholars and others who believed the probe veered away from its original mandate of looking into Whitewater allegations and raised separation-of-powers concerns. The law expired in 1999.

Can the special counsel file criminal charges?

Yes, but the special counsel can be required to keep the attorney general aware of any “investigative or prosecutorial step.” Justice Department rules state that the attorney general may conclude that charges are inappropriate or unwarranted. If the attorney general decides against pursuing charges, he must inform Congress.

Can a special counsel investigation coexist with congressional hearings and investigations into the same matter, and how would that work?

Congress on its own can conduct investigations and hold hearings on the conduct of executive branch officials, and the Senate and House intelligence committees are already conducting probes into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

But criminal prosecutions into possible violations of federal law are regarded as the job of the executive branch under Article II of the U.S. Constitution. There is nothing stopping the two branches from pursuing parallel inquiries.

—Del Quentin Wilber and Aruna Viswanatha contributed to this article.

Wall Street Journal 

Donald Trump 'asked FBI director James Comey to consider imprisoning reporters' - Independent

Donald Trump 'asked FBI director James Comey to consider imprisoning reporters'

Memo read to US media appears to show President also asked investigator to drop Michael Flynn probe

• Jon Sharman 
• Wednesday 17 May 2017 09:14 BST

Donald Trump told James Comey he should consider trying to imprison journalists for publishing classified information, it has been claimed.

The request surfaced in a New York Times report that also claimed Mr Trump asked the former FBI director to drop his investigation into Michael Flynn, the ex-national security adviser.

According to a memo written by Mr Comey and read to the paper, Mr Trump began their discussion by condemning leaks to the media and said Mr Comey should jail reporters who published classified information.

Mr Comey, who was known to keep a paper trail of sensitive meetings, chronicled the president's request soon after the February Oval Office meeting with the president, an associate who has seen the memo said.

Bruce Brown, director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said: "The comments attributed to President Trump cross a dangerous line. But no president gets to jail journalists.

"Reporters are protected by judges and juries, by a congress that relies on them to stay informed, and by a Justice Department that for decades has honoured the role of a free press by spurning prosecutions of journalists for publishing leaks of classified information.

"Comments such as these, emerging in the way they did, only remind us that every day public servants are reaching out to reporters to ensure the public is aware of the risks today to rule of law in this country. The President's remarks should not intimidate the press but inspire it."

On Tuesday Mr Trump tweeted: "I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community....."

The White House said: "The President has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr Comey."

German intelligence committee head calls Donald Trump 'a security risk to the Western world' - Independent

German intelligence committee head calls Donald Trump 'a security risk to the Western world'

Burkhard Lischka says President should safeguard 'exclusive and highly sensitive information'

• Lizzie Dearden 
• @lizziedearden 
• Wednesday 17 May 2017 10:19 BST

A senior German politician has called Donald Trump “a security risk to the Western world” amid reports the US President disclosed classified information from a vital ally to Russia.

Burkhard Lischka, who sits on the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight committee, said: “If it proves to be true that the American president passed on internal intelligence matters that would be highly worrying."

Noting that Mr Trump has access to “exclusive and highly sensitive information including in the area of combating terrorism” the Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician said that if the President “passes this information to other governments at will, then Trump becomes a security risk for the entire western world”.

Mr Lischka’s party is part of Germany’s governing coalition led by Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

The Chancellor visited the White House in March, where Mr Trump – already a hugely unpopular figure in Germany - appeared to refuse to shake her hand during an awkward joint press conference.

Counter-terror operations were among the issues discussed by the two leaders, with Germany standing as Nato and intelligence partner.

Having led Germany under three presidents, Ms Merkel has also negotiated extensively with Vladimir Putin, who is expected to meet Mr Trump for the first time at July’s G20 summit hosted by the German Chancellor in Hamburg.

Allegations that the President passed Russian officials classified intelligence on Isis threats relating to a widening laptop ban on passenger aircraft have threatened to damage the US’ relationship with allies.

The information reportedly shared in last week’s closed-door meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak is said to have been received under an intelligence sharing agreement with Israel.

The scandal comes days before Mr Trump visits the country on his first foreign trip, with the Israeli ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, saying it has “full confidence in our intelligence sharing relationship with the United States”.

The claims have sparked condemnation by both Republicans and Democrats following a series of apparently contradictory statements from the White House and Mr Trump.

Hours after top officials claimed the original Washington Post report on disclosures was “false”, the President tweeted that he had the “absolute right” to share “facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety” with Russia.

The information appears to be related to the basis for a ban imposed by the US and UK in March on laptops and tablets from being taken in hand luggage from 10 airports in Muslim-majority countries, which could be expanded to Europe. 

Aides have maintained that no “inappropriate” information was shared but repeatedly failed to deny the intelligence passed on was classified.

HR McMaster, the national security adviser, claimed the real threat to national security was leakers ”releasing information to the press".

In an off-camera briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly refused to comment on specific allegations but at one point appeared to confirm intelligence was passed on.

When a journalist asked whether the US had reached out to the ally that provided the information, he replied: “I'm not going to comment on specifically where it came from.”

He added: “My understanding is the President, of course, has classification authority…so the President can always discuss common threats or common issues with other heads of government or other government officials as he deems appropriate to tackle the threats our country faces.”

Before disclosing intelligence to another country, there would normally be an evaluation of costs and benefits, close consultation with American agencies and detailed consideration of how to mitigate risks. 

The US has several intelligence-sharing agreements with allies, including the Five Eyes programme with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The fact the information reportedly went to Russia during investigations into alleged links between Mr Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin has generated alarm, as well as Moscow’s ties with Iran, China and the Syrian government.

John McCain, the Republican former presidential candidate and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman said the reports were ”deeply disturbing“.

He said the claims sent a “troubling signal” to American partners around the world, and that if the information was shared without an ally’s knowledge, other countries could be from sharing intelligence in the future. 

“Regrettably, the time President Trump spent sharing sensitive information with the Russians was time he did not spend focusing on Russia’s aggressive behaviour, including its interference in American and European elections, its illegal invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, its other destabilising activities across Europe, and the slaughter of innocent civilians and targeting of hospitals in Syria,” Mr McCain added.

Steny Hoyer, one of the most senior Democrats in the House of Representatives, said Mr Trump’s presidency was “dangerous” and the claims were the latest example a White House riven by incompetence, chaos and conflicts of interest. 

“I think there is an erosion of confidence among the American people and an erosion of confidence of the international community,” he added.

Mr Hoyer added that it was too early to consider impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump, but that “it is time for Republicans to say, 'enough’”.