Just posted: the pardon that Trump issued to @cz_binance on Tuesday. It wipes away CZ's conviction for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, which prosecutors said allowed Hamas, Al Qaeda & ISIS to move money using @binance. https://t.co/ptbRCzxhd3

In 1991, then-@NBA Commissioner David Stern testified in favor of a national sports betting ban, warning the Senate Judiciary Committee that sports betting would cast a cloud of suspicion over the league: "Gambling threatens the integrity of & public confidence in all sports."

.@EleanorNorton, 88, is running for reelection despite apparent cognitive decline. She had $4k stolen by scammers posing as HVAC repairers. A police report says she has "early stages of dementia." Her office says the police aren’t qualified to diagnose.

A company called Unusual Machines that makes drone engines gave @DonaldJTrumpJr 200,000 shares of its stock (now worth $2.6M) late last year in return for his help as an adviser. The Army announced this month that it would purchase 3,500 of the engines.

Joe Biden used to tell Hunter's associates: "You do something for me, you’re a friend. You do something for my son, you’re a friend for life." I joined @SpyTalker @Isikoff & @KarenGreenberg3 to discuss my new book on foreign influence "Devils' Advocates" https://t.co/ZljrhcnQiW

In the new book 'Devils' Advocates' a slick operator named Robert Stryk gives us a primer on how to sell Washington influence to foreign clients in a 'sh*tbag world' https://t.co/zQqwdVvAO0

“It’s been a helluva week,” said Graham Platner at an event on Wednesday night. “I went from being a communist on Thursday to a Nazi by Monday.”

Asked if he pardoned CZ because @binance did biz with the Trump crypto firm, Trump says “a lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything” (he pleaded guilty to money laundering), before attacking the reporter, saying “you know nothing about nothing.”

Since FDR, Democrats were the party of the working class, while Republicans were known as the party of the rich. Under Trump, that’s flipped. The affluent now mostly vote Dem, while poorer Americans mostly vote GOP. @BrodyMullinsDC crunches the numbers.

Foreign policy is unusually rife for lobbying compared to other policy arenas, because with a few notable exceptions — military support for Israel or opposition to the Cuban socialist regime — foreign causes mostly lack domestic constituencies.

One of the lobbyists hired to help facilitate the CZ pardon is Ches McDowell, a hunting buddy of @DonaldJTrumpJr. McDowell & DJT Jr. were spotted together at the WH last week talking to the president.

This was first reported by the great @WSJ team of @rebeccaballhaus, @jdawsey1, @kowsmann & @AABerwick.

NEW: Trump has pardoned @binance founder @cz_binance, wiping away one of the US’s most significant crackdowns on crypto crime. CZ had hired lawyers & lobbyists with Trump ties, while Binance struck a business deal with the Trump family’s crypto company.

Elliott Broidy is also suing @AmericanExpress, claiming he was denied a credit card because of his conviction for illegal foreign lobbying, even though he was pardoned by Trump. AmEx says he was denied because he had previously misused his accounts.

Among the criteria @TheJusticeDept uses for evaluating clemency petitions is whether applicants have expressed remorse & whether they are likely to reoffend. Trump has ignored that process. And several of his pardonees have been charged with new crimes.

Trump ran on a pledge to drain the DC swamp, but now he is surrounding himself with various foreign interests and business leaders, even accepting a plane donated by Qatar. Author and journalist @kenvogel explains how these influences are shaping the Trump administration:

Elliott Broidy, who had sued Qatari lobbyists for allegedly helping to disseminate his hacked emails, is now suing @haaretzcom for reporting that a company in which he's an investor is working for Qatar.

As Dems scramble to reach the white working class, a pattern has emerged: Activists fall in love with fresh faced candidates emphasizing blue collar bona fides. After they reap gobs of $ & gauzy press, they’re exposed as not quite what the base projected

Tonight on @SystemUpdate, live at 7pm ET: Trump wages war on Thomas Massie and Rand Paul -- while he fund-raises for warmonger Lindsey Graham Plus: NYT's @kenvogel on his new book: how foreign money drives the DC swamp and bipartisan foreign policy. https://t.co/4GKczLmHw4