Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Plenty more on this on tonight’s show: “The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended Friday that the Justice Department investigate for possible criminal charges the author of the now-famous ‘dossier’ alleging the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.”
* Sadly predictable: “A Trump administration official said Friday that a revived investigation of the Clinton Foundation ‘has been going on for months.’ The Hill newspaper reported that FBI agents from Little Rock, Arkansas, recently conducted an interview with a potential witness. The paper said the Justice Department ‘has launched a new inquiry’ into the foundation.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “The major trade group representing Facebook, Google, Netflix and dozens of other tech firms in Washington said Friday that it plans to join a multi-pronged legal attack against the Federal Communications Commission over its decision to deregulate the broadband industry — drawing fresh battle lines in a years-long fight over the future of the Internet.”
* Alabama: “Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson lost her home Tuesday in a fire that is now under investigation by the Etowah County Arson Task Force.”
* Interesting observation: “Add up all of this week’s White House news and activities (or lack thereof), and you see an increasingly isolated President Trump. Maybe that explains the president’s tweetstorm from Tuesday…. For starters, the president hasn’t held a single public event since returning to the White House after the Christmas/New Year’s break.” * I find this easy to believe: Michael Wolff, the author of a new book that gives a behind-the-scenes account of the White House, defended his work Friday… Wolff added that ‘100 percent of the people around” Trump, “senior advisers, family members, every single one of them, questions his intelligence and fitness for office.’” * Wishing one of my favorite members of Congress a speedy recovery: “Baltimore Rep. Elijah E. Cummings was in the hospital Friday for what his office described as a bacterial infection in his knee. Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, underwent what aides said was a ‘minor procedure’ for the infection at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has been in the hospital since Dec. 29.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
