The Morning Briefing: The Media Helps the Khashoggi Story Along and Much, Much More

Good Thursday morning.

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

The president meets with the secretary of State
President Trump receives his intelligence briefing
The president meets with the South Carolina delegation
President Trump hosts a Make America Great Again rally in Missoula, Montana

Khashoggi disappearance

Keep in mind we are getting much of our information about what happened to ~~journalist~~ Muslim Brother and friend of Osama bin Laden Jamal Khashoggi from Turkey. Erdogan is a bad hombre so believe his security apparatus at your own intellectual peril. The political backdrop of this “scandal” is Iran/Turkey/Qatar vs U.S./Israel/Saudi Arabia. Guess which side the media is on? Ben Rhodes’ echo chamber is alive and kickin’. Always remember how the media is helping this story along.

The WaPo, where Khashoggi was allowed to share his propaganda under a “respectable” banner, has published his last dispatch.

One major question I have is why would the Saudis execute this operation the way they did if indeed they did what the media is accusing them of doing. Obviously, the Turks are no friends of theirs and their Turkish embassy was bugged just like every embassy in the world is bugged by the host country, so why whack him in the embassy rather than just quietly “handling it”?

This story has become such a big deal, with so much media pressure to punish Saudi Arabia, get rid of MBS, etc., it’s suspicious. Did the media and the smart people care this much when Obama drone-killed two American citizens overseas? I don’t think so.

Related:

This freak was CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia. I wonder what he knows, right? John Brennan Claims The White House and Saudis are Working Together ‘To Concoct a Story’ about What Happened to Khashoggi

Fallout over Saudi activist’s disappearance puts spotlight on Middle East country’s crown prince

Corker: Trump administration ‘clamped down’ on Saudi intel, canceled briefing

Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression

What we know about the 15 Saudis said to have played a role in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance

There is no deep state, Treasury Department version

Yesterday, a senior official in the Treasury Department was charged with leaking the private financial information of undesirable Trump associates.

A senior Treasury Department employee was arrested and charged with leaking sensitive documents about figures connected to the Russia investigation to a reporter, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, was charged with disclosing “suspicious activity reports” (SARs) beginning in October 2017, the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York said.

Amazing. This is not getting nearly the same treatment from the media as it would get if the partisan interests were reversed.

“SARs, which are filed confidentially by banks and other financial institutions to alert law enforcement to potentially illegal transactions, are not public documents, and it is an independent federal crime to disclose them outside of one’s official duties,” U.S. Attorney Berman said.

Prosecutors said Edwards leaked documents related to Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, the Russian Embassy and Maria Butina, among others. The information was used in approximately 12 news stories, according to the indictment.

The accused leaker claimed that she was merely a whistleblower. Right.

Democrat fight club round-up

Soros-backed group fires operative after arrest over alleged battery against GOP campaign manager

Two GOP Candidates Assaulted in Minnesota

Protesters confront Cruz at airport over Kavanaugh vote

Historical picture of the day:

Professor Albert Einstein at the microphone, congratulates Thomas Edison on the 50 years anniversary of the first electric lamp by telephone from Berlin to America, on Oct. 18, 1930. (AP Photo)

Your daily WTF:

I am screaming inside Divers swim through 90 feet of raw sewage to unclog giant, hairy ‘fatberg’

Other morsels:

RNC rips Politico editor-in-chief over Trump tweet

Dem congressional candidates raise over $1B in record haul

Secret Service: Agent who blocked reporter questioning Kushner reacted to ‘abrupt movement’

Biden: No ‘Basis’ For Democrats To Impeach Trump If They Retake The House

White woman fired after blocking black man from entering building speaks out

US border officials seize $1M in heroin in Arizona

Don McGahn departs as White House counsel

Ex-USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny arrested on charges tied to Larry Nassar probe

Rod Rosenstein says the Russia probe has uncovered a widespread Russian effort to meddle in the 2016 race