Today’s edition of quick hits:
* John Conyers: “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democrats on Thursday increased the pressure on Rep. John Conyers, who is facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and a House Ethics Committee probe, by calling on him to resign from office.”
* Al Franken: “An Army veteran is the latest woman to publicly accuse Sen. Al Franken of touching her Inappropriately, saying the Minnesota Democrat groped her during a USO tour nearly 14 years ago.”
* This report is worth your time: “Warning that the Trump administration seems to be claiming ‘unchecked power that is, quite frankly, frightening,’ a judge ordered the government on Thursday to say by 5 p.m. whether an American citizen held in military custody for 11 weeks has been warned of his Miranda rights and has sought access to a lawyer.”
* The cost of self-sabotage: “The proposition that Britain could have its cake and eat it during Brexit, as the foreign secretary Boris Johnson once said, was always dismissed as a fiction by opponents. On Wednesday, it was quietly interred by the government as it capitulated on the amount it will have to pay for a divorce settlement. And this was not Britain’s first capitulation over Brexit, nor — almost certainly — will it be the last, analysts said.”
* Trump-Russia: “President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, met this month with investigators working for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, and answered questions about a meeting with a Russian ambassador during the presidential transition, according to a person briefed on the investigation.”
* Randy Credico: “A longtime outsider in New York State politics has been identified as the link between WikiLeaks and Roger J. Stone Jr., an adviser to Donald J. Trump who appears to have had advance knowledge about hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” * Have I mentioned that the agency is having financial problems? “The Secret Service spent nearly $7,500 on golf cart rentals while President Trump was at his private golf club Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving.” * A bill worth watching: “A House panel advanced a GOP measure Wednesday that would greatly expand the ability of Americans to carry concealed weapons across state lines, while also moving on a bipartisan basis to close loopholes in the federal background check system for gun buyers.” 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
