The Morning Briefing: Ingraham Stays, Andy's Cash Money Windfall and Much, Much More

Good Tuesday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president receives his intelligence briefing
President Trump meets with the Baltic States Heads of Government
The president participates in a working lunch with the Baltic States Heads of Government
President Trump hosts a joint press conference with the Baltic States Heads of Government
The president participates in the departure of the Baltic States Heads of Government

Justice Department to clear immigration system with judge quotas

In order to speed up the deportation process:

The minimum quotas, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, will require judges to clear 700 cases a year and to see that fewer of their rulings are sent back by a higher court.

According to the Journal’s report, the Justice Department says that on average over the past five years judges have cleared 678 cases, but some judges completed far more cases. The system operates on a sliding scale, so judges who fail to meet the top standards could see their performance review downgrade.

And that’s not all: “judges will also need to meet thresholds in other areas including a demand that 85 percent of cases for people that have been detained be completed in three days after a judge has heard the merits of the particular case.”

The new quotas will go into effect in October.

McCabe shuts down his fundraiser, wife speaks

Operation Rehabilitate Andy McCabe has been in full swing following the FBI’s decision to fire the former senior official. Whatever is in that Inspector General report must be pretty bad if they have to get in front of it with a PR blitz.

I hear McCabe is pretty well off — he drives a Porsche and lives in a nice house and his wife’s a doctor. Nevertheless Mr. “Andy’s office” opened up a GoFundMe campaign to cover his upcoming legal fees. I wonder how General Flynn is feeling right now?

McCabe isn’t losing his retirement as many believe— that was a lie spread to curry favor for and victimize the fired FBI agent. From Hot Air, “What he lost was the right to qualify for that pension early, at age 50. He’ll need to wait now until he’s 57 to begin receiving money. Or, to put this in private-sector lingo, instead of being able to retire comfortably 15 years before a private-sector worker might, he’ll only be able to do so eight years before.”

McCabe swears that the funds will be used for legal defense only, not for a court battle to try to get his hands on that sweet, sweet early-retirement money. We’ll see. Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald had some fun running the numbers on how much the McCabes are worth — their home alone is valued at over a million dollars — and who exactly has been been promoting the GoFundMe page to Democrats.

McCabe raised over $550k.

The other McCabe, former state office candidate Jill McCabe, has written an op-ed complaining about the horrible scrutiny her husband’s behavior has wrought. “For the past year and a half of this nightmare, I have not been free to speak out about what happened. Now that Andrew has been fired, I am,” wrote Jill McCabe, who is a pediatrician.

Clinton friend and former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars for wife McCabe’s run for the VA state Senate after McAuliffe was cleared in an FBI investigation. That doesn’t look weird or anything. Also the FBI was looking into Hillary Clinton’s email server around the same time that the money was floating to Mrs. McCabe. You decide if this seems a little “off.”

Ingraham’s coming back

Fox News host Laura Ingraham was targeted for a boycott by the progressive left machine for making fun of gun control spokeschild David Hogg. (This is why the gun controllers use children to spread their message: hard to respond to a child without falling prey to accusations of bullying.) Sponsors were targeted and stopped advertising on Ingraham’s show. Ingraham is off this week, leading some to speculate that FNC was going to can her. Fox released a statement yesterday setting the record straight.

“We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” the statement read.

“We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children,” he added.

The Hill wants you to know that RUSSIAN bots leaped to Ingraham’s defense during her spat with spokeschild David Hogg.

Russian bots on Twitter appear to be latching on to the feud between Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor David Hogg.

Hamilton 68, a website that tracks Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence campaigns, found that the use of the hashtag #IstandwithLaura spiked 2,800 percent over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported on Monday.

Another bot-monitoring project, Botcheck.me, reported that “David Hogg” and “Laura Ingraham” were the top two-word phrases being shared by Russia-linked accounts.

The Hill mentions that RUSSIAN bots typical attach themselves to divisive American cultural issues, but it sounds more ominous to imply that there’s a connection between Ingraham and the RUSSIAN efforts.

Your daily WTFs

Synthetic pot cases spike in Illinois, officials warn users may experience ‘bleeding from eyes and ears’

The viral condom-snorting challenge is a dangerous idea — here’s why you should never put a condom up your nose

Historical picture of the day:

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan are shown on April 3, 1973, one day before the dedication. The 110-story towers are the tallest buildings in the world. At right is 1 World Trade Center on the north at 1,368 feet, and at left is 2 World Trade Center on the south at 1,362 feet. (AP Photo/David Pickoff)

Other morsels:

Trump leads Kasich, Flake among likely NH GOP voters

Thousands of teachers walk out demanding pay, funding increases

Trump congratulates Egypt’s president after heavily criticized election

Scott Pruitt probed over condo rental from energy lobbyist

Mueller Found a Very Dishonest Way to Shroud His Investigation in Secrecy

Boko Haram kills 15, wounds 83 in attack in northern Nigeria

Ted Nugent continues to bash Parkland survivor David Hogg, praises Fox’s Laura Ingraham

Howard University student protest enters its 5th full day

Citing private chats, Parkland teacher says students like David Hogg don’t ‘speak for all students’

‘Roseanne’ Breaks More Records

Trump 2020 Campaign Manager: Pull The Press Credentials Of CNN’s Jim Acosta