Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team picked up another notch on its belt today with the guilty plea of Sam Patten, a Republican lobbyist who specialized in Russian and Ukraine affairs.

Patten pleaded guilty to a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) violation. The NY Times decodes several of the persons referred to as "Foreigner A" "Foreigner B", "Company A", etc.

The Information (charging document, in lieu of an Indictment) is here. His plea agreement is here. His statement of offense (factual basis for the plea) is here. [More...]

A new poll by the Washington Post finds that 60% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump. On the other hand, they support Robert Mueller and Jeff Sessions.

Here are the results.

CA Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill today eliminating cash bail for arrestees.

Instead of having to post a cash bond, the court will conduct a "risk assessment" to determine whether they should be released on electronic monitoring or detained pending trial.

The bill is supposed to eliminate disparate treatment of the economically challenged who can't afford bail. But the ACLU forsees other problems developing due to handing the decision off to judges. [More...]

It's a jail day for me, open thread day for you.

All topics welcome.

Yesterday John McCain's family announced he would not seek further medical treatment for cancer. Today he passed away.

I will mostly remember him for his ill-advised, ill-fated choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. I still shudder to think of the consequences to the country had he been elected and died during his presidency. Somehow the country has sunk to Palin's level anyway with Donald Trump, but that's not McCain's fault.

R.I.P. John McCain.

CBS News reports:

Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret Hunter, were indicted [Tuesday] by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of using $250,000 worth of campaign funds for personal use, as well as filing false reports to the Federal Election Commission.

Hunter, a Republican from California, is accused of using campaign finances inappropriately several times between 2009 and 2016. The funds were allegedly used for family vacations to locations such as Hawaii and Italy, as well as more mundane expenses such as dental work and school tuition. The Justice Department also alleges that the Hunters used tens of thousands of dollars for smaller expenses such as fast food and video games.

The 47 page Indictment is here. The investigation began into the Duncans began in 2016. It's the cover-up that got them: [More...]

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to 8 charges today in New York.

The Information (charges against him) is here. More interesting is his plea agreement which is available here. [More...]

Original Post, 8/16/18, Manifort Jury Deliberating: The jury is out in the Paul Manafort trial. His charges:

• willfully subscribing and filing false income tax returns (Counts 1 through 5),
• willfully failing to file foreign bank account
  reports (“FBARs”) (Counts 11 through 14),
• bank fraud (Counts 25 through 27, 30 and 32),
• bank fraud conspiracy (Counts 24, 28, 29, and 31)

It's interesting to see all the media articles with photos of Manafort and counsel arriving at the courthouse and Manafort and his wife leaving the courthouse. The photos are all from prior court appearances. Manafort is detained during trial, his bond having been revoked in June. There are no photos of him coming to or leaving the courthouse during the trial. [More...]

As for Rudy's comment the other day that the truth is not the truth, I think he's right in the context of cooperating with the Government. But his explanation is lame .

My statement was not meant as a pontification on moral theology but one referring to the situation where two people make precisely contradictory statements, the classic “he said,she said” puzzle. Sometimes further inquiry can reveal the truth other times it doesn’t.

I think what he really meant was, when you agree to cooperate with the Government, you are obliged to tell the truth. But it's the Government's truth you have to tell, because if your truth differs from the Government's truth, you get nothing. (Just ask Susan McDougal).

Time for a new open thread, all topics welcome.

I'll be out when this is announced today, but according to Reuters, the U.S. and Mexico have agreed on a new strategy in the war on drugs.

President Lopez-Obrador (AMLO) has suggested a peace/amnesty plan in the past. Today's announcement may be a joint decision to go after the money.

Details of the plan will be made at a joint news conference in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, the official said. The official said representatives from Mexico’s current government would be present but did not name them.

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning nationalist, has vowed to shake up Mexico’s war on drug cartels after he takes power in December. He wants to rewrite the rules, aides have said, suggesting negotiated peace and amnesties rather than a hardline strategy that critics say has only perpetuated violence.

No amount of "police, soldiers and intelligence officers" can win the war on drugs. Mexico needs to start with the corruption among high government officials, military and police and the U.S. needs to start with reducing demand. Long prison terms do nothing. They certainly are not a deterrent to others. Amnesty and legalization together would be a good start.

Carey Dean Moore was executed this morning with a four drug concoction that included fetanyl. Nebrasks wins the title of being the first state in the country to intentionally kill someone using Fetanyl. Nevada intended to be first until stopped by a court last month.

According to the Nebraska Dept of Corrections, it took 23 minutes for Moore to die after receiving the first drug.

The first of four substances was administered at 10:24 a.m. The Lancaster County coroner pronounced Moore’s time of death at 10:47 a.m.

According to witnesses:

One media witness, Brent Martin of the Nebraska Radio Network, said that Tuesday's execution in the Nebraska State Penitentiary took longer than the 13 executions he witnessed in Missouri. In those executions, it took about five minutes to complete the lethal injection process.

About 15 minutes into the execution, ight after administering the last injection, officials closed the curtains for about 8 minutes, so the process was not as transparent as it should have been. When officials re-opened the curtains, Moore was already dead. Witnesses said his face was "darker purple, and mottled."

The four drugs used were: Diazepam was first, and then the fentanyl, then cisatracurium and then the heart-stopper, potassium chloride. [More...]