Today’s edition of quick hits:
* North Korea “defied President Donald Trump and the world again by firing another ballistic test missile Tuesday. It was the first missile launch since September and came as Trump and the Senate Republicans were trying to pass a tax code overhaul.”
* A mixed verdict for Ahmed Abu Khatallah: “A federal court jury [in D.C] found a Libyan man guilty Tuesday of playing a role in the infamous terrorist attack on a U.S. government compound in Benghazi, Libya. But he was acquitted of charges that his actions lead to the deaths of four Americans.”
* Chatter about his resignation is growing louder: “Another former staffer of Rep. John Conyers has accused the Michigan Democrat of unwanted sexual advances, according to a report Tuesday. Deanna Maher, who worked as Conyers’ deputy chief of staff from 1997 to 2005, told The Detroit News that her former boss touched her inappropriately and made other unwelcome advances on three occasions.”
* I imagine everyone’s heard about this, but just in case: “A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.”
* Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) “issued an unprompted joint statement with a female former staffer who years ago made and later dropped allegations of sexual assault, with the two on Monday calling the matter ‘absolutely resolved.’”
* In case you missed Rachel’s reference to this last night: “The senior official charged with remaking the State Department in Secretary Rex Tillerson’s image has resigned after three months on the job, an agency spokesman confirmed to NBC on Monday.” * Another Wells Fargo controversy? “An internal review showed that out of roughly 300 fee agreements based on anything from informal handshakes to emails to signed documents, only about 35 companies were charged the actual price they had been offered for currency trades handled by Wells Fargo, the employees say.” * And the Campaign Legal Center’s Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, presented his case in an op-ed that Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act during a recent television interview. 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
